Understanding the concentrations and distributions of water on the Moon is critical to understanding its formation and evolution, and to providing water resources for future human exploration. A new discovery may help explain the origin of the water ice previously discovered in the lunar permanently shaded regions.
This public impact research, led by a University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa planetary scientist Shuai Li, found that high energy electrons in Earth’s plasma sheet (an area of trapped charged particles within the magnetosphere, an area of space around Earth controlled by the planet’s magnetic field) are contributing to weathering processes on the Moon’s surface and the electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar surface. The study was published in Nature Astronomy.
The magnetosphere protects Earth from space weathering and damaging radiation from the Sun. Solar wind pushes the magnetosphere and reshapes it, making a long tail on the night side. The plasma sheet within this magnetotail is a region consisting of high energy electrons and ions that may be sourced from Earth and the solar wind.
Read more at University of Hawaii at Manoa
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