The Lunar Environment

COFFEE_KLATCH · Invited

Abstract

This talk will summarize the recent results from Lunar The Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) onboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) mission. LDEX discovered a permanently present dust cloud engulfing the Moon. The cloud is non-spherical, showing higher densities in a direction canted towards the Sun from the lunar orbital motion. The size, velocity, and density distributions of the dust particles are consistent with ejecta clouds generated from the continual bombardment of the lunar surface by sporadic interplanetary dust particles. Intermittent density enhancements were observed during several of the annual meteoroid streams, especially during the Geminids. LDEX found no evidence of the suspected density enhancements over the terminators where electrostatic processes were predicted to efficiently loft small grains. The talk will conclude by summarizing our current understanding of the interactions of the solar wind plasma flow and UV radiation with the lunar surface, and the possible generalization to other airless bodies in the solar system.

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Authors

  • John Colton

    Brigham Young University Dept. of Physics and Astronomy, Brigham Young University, None, The College of William and Mary/Jefferson Lab, Brigham Young University-Idaho, Blue Ridge Research and Consulting LLC, Air Force Research Laboratory - Wright Patterson Air Force Base, Brigham Young Univ - Provo, Blue Ridge Research and Consulting, University of Utah, SRI International, Utah State University, Utah Valley University, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Professor, Graduate, United States Air Force Academy, Arizona State Univ, SiO2 NanoTech, Entrepix Inc, AFRL, Advisor, Brigham Young University- Provo, University of New Mexico, Univ of Utah, University of Wisconsin -- Madison, New Mexico Tech Physics Dept., Retired, Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Utah, Department of Physics \& Astronomy, University of Hawai'i, JILA and University of Colorado, Boulder, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Boulder, University of Colorado, Boulder, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, National Institute of Standards and Technology, Space Dynamics Lab, New Mexico Tech, BYU Professor, Brigham Young University -- Provo, Northern Arizona University, University of Colorado Boulder, Colorado State University, University of Utah, Department of Physics, New Mexico State University