Does the Moon Have an Atmosphere?

[zorgon]

Surveyor Observations of Lunar Horizon-Glow
Surveyor One





Surveyor 1 Solar Corona Spike "Solar corona in the photograph observed by Surveyor 1, 16 minutes after sunset on the Moon June 14,1966," was remarked Gordon Newkirk, of the High Altitude Observatory. "A bright coronal streamer is visible as a thin pencil of light extending out of the brighter inner corona, against which the lunar horizon is silhouetted."

Surveyor Observations of Lunar Horizon-Glow
Surveyor Six


67-H-1642
November 24, 1967
Sunlight diffracted at Moon's limb as seen in Surveyor VI picture of the horizon west of spacecraft.

This is the photo Richard Hoagland uses as proof of a glass dome...


From Richard Hoagland's work...

"This may be a photograph of the extraordinary glass dome covering the region of the moon known as Sinus Medii. It was taken by the unmanned Surveyor 6 on November 24, 1967, one hour after sunset."

Surveyor 1 - Launched May 30, 1966 - 11,237 images were transmitted to Earth.
Surveyor 2 - Launched September 20, 1966 - crashed near Copernicus crater.
Surveyor 3 - Launched on April 17, 1967 - 6,315 images were transmitted to Earth.
Surveyor 4 - Launched July 14, 1967 - This spacecraft crashed after an otherwise flawless mission.
Surveyor 5 - Launched September 3, 1967 - 19,049 images were transmitted to Earth.
Surveyor 6 - Launched November 7, 1967 - 30,027 images were transmitted to Earth.
Surveyor 7 - Launched January 7, 1968 - 21,091 images were transmitted to Earth.

To date I have only been able to find a mere handful of these images.. Time to hunt them down

[zorgon]

A Dynamic Fountain Model for Lunar Dust
by Timothy J. Stubbs, Richard R. Vondrak, and William M. Farrell

During the Apollo era of exploration it was discovered that sunlight was scattered at the terminators giving rise to "horizon glow" and "streamers" above the lunar surface. This was observed from the dark side of the Moon during
sunset and sunrise by both surface landers and astronauts in orbit. These observations were quite unexpected, as the Moon was thought to be a pristine environment with a negligible atmosphere or exosphere.

LPI-1899 PDF - [PDF][Archived]

Although Timothy Stubbs is reluctant at this stage to make a definitive connection between crepuscular rays seen on Earth and the lunar rays sketched by the Apollo 17 astronauts, that very connection was suggested more than two decades ago by astronomers Aden and Marjorie Meinel in their charming book on meteorological optics: Sunsets, Twilights, and Evening Skies (Cambridge University Press, 1983) p. 123-126. Two different pictures of crepuscular rays can be found in Skyscapes, by Trudy E. Bell, League of American Bicyclists magazine, 37 (3): 12-15 (Summer 2001).

Just one of several papers from the early 1970s hypothesizing that the twilight glows photographed by the Surveyor landers and the "lunar rays" seen by the Apollo 17 astronauts were due to suspended lunar dust was "Evidence for a Lunar Dust Atmosphere from Apollo Orbital Observations" by J. E. McCoy and D. R. Criswell, Abstracts of the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, volume 5, page 475, (1974). Another was "Surveyor Observations of Lunar Horizon-Glow," by J. J Rennilson and D. R. Criswell, The Moon 10: 121--142 (1974).

Electrostatic levitation of dust is also being studied by the Dusty Plasma Group in the physics department at the University of Colorado.

"Evidence for a Lunar Dust Atmosphere from Apollo Orbital Observations" by J. E. McCoy and D. R. Criswell - [PDF][Archived

"Surveyor Observations of Lunar Horizon-Glow," by J. J Rennilson and D. R. Criswell, The Moon 10: 121--142 (1974). - [PDF][Archived]

[zorgon]

Lunar Sunrise Sunset Crater Rays

These observations of the sunset rays on the Moon are from Earth by astronomers...

These events occur when the sun, at a low lunar altitude, projects a ray or spike of light, through a broken wall feature of a crater. Although many of these events may be visible on the surface of the moon, these are a listing of the more common ray events which have been reported in astronomical magazines, publications, or from observers who may have detected a ray for the first time, and reported it. Although not of any scientific value, the allusiveness of these events, coupled with the short time frame they are visible, make these real challenges for the avid lunar observer!

If you observe any of these events, and would like to have your observations placed in the reports, or if you think you have discovered another notable ray events, let me know and I will get it published here.

Report #1

Date: 1997/5/29
Location: ASH Naylor Observatory, Lewisberry, Pa.
          76d53'4" west, 40d8'54" north; elevation 570 feet
Seeing: good
Transparency: good
Dome Temperature: 52 d F at session's end
Instrument: 17" f/15 classical Cassegrain
Ocular: 26mm Tele Vue Ploessl (249x)
Time: 07:10 UT

After I finished up a successful Herschel 400 globular cluster hunt on Thursday morning (I bagged 9 new H400 objects) I took a quick look at Jupiter and then the rising Moon as it obliterated the summer Milky Way. Although it was getting very late and quite chilly I was very happy to chance upon what just might be a new "lunar ray". I was scanning along the terminator at 249x when I noticed a triangular ray of sunlight streaming through a break in the western crater wall of Walter (at approximately 2 degrees west, 33 degrees south - Rukl chart 65). The ray illuminated Walter's western floor and the lower part of its central peak (the upper part was in direct sunlight, I believe). At approximately 07:42 UT I spotted a "reverse" triangular shadow being cast from an object on the western wall onto the illuminated crater floor. I could not stay any longer and by the time I had returned to my residence and set up my C4.5 (about 08:30 UT) the phenomenon was over and the crater floor was in darkness.

Dave Mitsky
Harrisburg, PA
ASH, DVAA

The Robinson Lunar Observatory

[zorgon]

Moon Storms
An old Apollo experiment is telling researchers something new and surprising about the moon
December 7, 2005

Every lunar morning, when the sun first peeks over the dusty soil of the moon after two weeks of frigid lunar night, a strange storm stirs the surface.

The next time you see the moon, trace your finger along the terminator, the dividing line between lunar night and day. That's where the storm is. It's a long and skinny dust storm, stretching all the way from the north pole to the south pole, swirling across the surface, following the terminator as sunrise ceaselessly sweeps around the moon.

The box in the foreground is the Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites Experiment (LEAM). [More]

Billions of years ago, meteoroids hit the moon almost constantly, pulverizing rocks and coating the moon's surface with their dusty debris. Indeed, this is the reason why the moon is so dusty. Today these impacts happen less often, but they still happen.

Apollo-era scientists wanted to know, how much dust is ejected by daily impacts? And what are the properties of that dust? LEAM was to answer these questions using three sensors that could record the speed, energy, and direction of tiny particles: one each pointing up, east, and west.

LEAM's three-decade-old data are so intriguing, they're now being reexamined by several independent groups of NASA and university scientists. Gary Olhoeft, professor of geophysics at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden, is one of them:

"To everyone's surprise," says Olhoeft, "LEAM saw a large number of particles every morning, mostly coming from the east or west--rather than above or below--and mostly slower than speeds expected for lunar ejecta."
What could cause this? Stubbs has an idea: "The dayside of the moon is positively charged; the nightside is negatively charged." At the interface between night and day, he explains, "electrostatically charged dust would be pushed across the terminator sideways," by horizontal electric fields. (Learn more: "Moon Fountains." )

Even more surprising, Olhoeft continues, a few hours after every lunar sunrise, the experiment's temperature rocketed so high--near that of boiling water--that "LEAM had to be turned off because it was overheating."

Those strange observations could mean that "electrically-charged moondust was sticking to LEAM, darkening its surface so the experiment package absorbed rather than reflected sunlight," speculates Olhoeft.

But nobody knows for sure. LEAM operated for a very short time: only 620 hours of data were gathered during the icy lunar night and a mere 150 hours of data from the blazing lunar day before its sensors were turned off and the Apollo program ended.

Astronauts may have seen the storms, too. While orbiting the Moon, the crews of Apollo 8, 10, 12, and 17 sketched "bands" or "twilight rays" where sunlight was apparently filtering through dust above the moon's surface. This happened before each lunar sunrise and just after each lunar sunset. NASA's Surveyor spacecraft also photographed twilight "horizon glows," much like what the astronauts saw.

Dusty "twilight rays" sketched by Apollo 17 astronauts in 1972

It's even possible that these storms have been spotted from Earth: For centuries, there have been reports of strange glowing lights on the moon, known as "lunar transient phenomena" or LTPs. Some LTPs have been observed as momentary flashes--now generally accepted to be visible evidence of meteoroids impacting the lunar surface. But others have appeared as amorphous reddish or whitish glows or even as dusky hazy regions that change shape or disappear over seconds or minutes. Early explanations, never satisfactory, ranged from volcanic gases to observers' overactive imaginations (including visiting extraterrestrials).

Now a new scientific explanation is gaining traction. "It may be that LTPs are caused by sunlight reflecting off rising plumes of electrostatically lofted lunar dust," Olhoeft suggests.

All this matters to NASA because, by 2018 or so, astronauts are returning to the Moon. Unlike Apollo astronauts, who never experienced lunar sunrise, the next explorers are going to establish a permanent outpost. They'll be there in the morning when the storm sweeps by.

The wall of dust, if it exists, might be diaphanous, invisible, harmless. Or it could be a real problem, clogging spacesuits, coating surfaces and causing hardware to overheat.

Which will it be? Says Stubbs, "we've still got a lot to learn about the Moon."

Authors: Trudy E. Bell & Dr. Tony Phillips | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Moon Storms - NASA Science



Evidence for a high altitude distribution of Lunar Dust by James E. McCoy - [PDF][Archived]

[zorgon]

The Moon and the Magnetotail


The full Moon inside Earth's magnetic tail, March 2008 - NASA

The Moon and the Magnetotail
04.17.2008

April 17, 2008: Behold the full Moon. Ancient craters and frozen lava seas lie motionless under an airless sky of profound quiet. It's a slow-motion world where even a human footprint may last millions of years. Nothing ever seems to happen there.

Right?

Wrong. NASA-supported scientists have realized that something does happen every month when the Moon gets a lashing from Earth's magnetic tail.

"Earth's magnetotail extends well beyond the orbit of the Moon and, once a month, the Moon orbits through it," says Tim Stubbs, a University of Maryland scientist working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to electrostatic discharges."

Yes, Earth does have a magnetic tail. It is an extension of the same familiar magnetic field we experience when using a Boy Scout compass. Our entire planet is enveloped in a bubble of magnetism, which springs from a molten dynamo in Earth's core. Out in space, the solar wind presses against this bubble and stretches it, creating a long "magnetotail" in the downwind direction: diagram.

Anyone can tell when the Moon is inside the magnetotail. Just look: "If the Moon is full, it is inside the magnetotail," says Stubbs. "The Moon enters the magnetotail three days before it is full and takes about six days to cross and exit on the other side."

It is during those six days that strange things can happen. 

The Moon's orbit crosses Earth's magnetotail.

During the crossing, the Moon comes in contact with a gigantic "plasma sheet" of hot charged particles trapped in the tail. The lightest and most mobile of these particles, electrons, pepper the Moon's surface and give the Moon a negative charge.

On the Moon's dayside this effect is counteracted to a degree by sunlight: UV photons knock electrons back off the surface, keeping the build-up of charge at relatively low levels. But on the nightside, in the cold lunar dark, electrons accumulate and voltages can climb to hundreds or thousands of volts.

Walking across the dusty charged-up lunar terrain, astronauts may find themselves crackling with electricity like a sock pulled out of a hot dryer. Touching another astronaut, a doorknob, a piece of sensitive electronics—any of these simple actions could produce an unwelcome zap. "Proper grounding is strongly recommended," advises Stubbs.

The ground, meanwhile, may leap into the sky. There is compelling evidence (see, e.g., the Surveyor 7 image below) that fine particles of moondust, when sufficiently charged-up, actually float above the lunar surface. This could create a temporary nighttime atmosphere of dust ready to blacken spacesuits, clog machinery, scratch faceplates (moondust is very abrasive) and generally make life difficult for astronauts.

Stranger still, moondust might gather itself into a sort of diaphanous wind. Drawn by differences in global charge accumulation, floating dust would naturally fly from the strongly-negative nightside to the weakly-negative dayside. This "dust storm" effect would be strongest at the Moon's terminator, the dividing line between day and night.

Much of this is pure speculation, Stubbs cautions. No one can say for sure what happens on the Moon when the magnetotail hits, because no one has been there at the crucial time. "Apollo astronauts never landed on a full Moon and they never experienced the magnetotail."

The best direct evidence comes from NASA's Lunar Prospector spacecraft, which orbited the Moon in 1998-99 and monitored many magnetotail crossings. During some crossings, the spacecraft sensed big changes in the lunar nightside voltage, jumping "typically from -200 V to -1000 V," says Jasper Halekas of UC Berkeley who has been studying the decade-old data.

In 1968, on many occasions, NASA's Surveyor 7 moon lander photographed a strange "horizon glow" after dark. Researchers now believe the glow is sunlight scattered from electrically-charged moondust floating just above the lunar surface.  [Larger image]

"It is important to note," says Halekas, "that the plasma sheet (where all the electrons come from) is a very dynamic structure. The plasma sheet is in a constant state of motion, flapping up and down all the time. So as the Moon orbits through the magnetotail, the plasma sheet can sweep across it over and over again. Depending on how dynamic things are, we can encounter the plasma sheet many times during a single pass through the magnetotail with encounters lasting anywhere from minutes to hours or even days."

"As a result, you can imagine how dynamic the charging environment on the Moon is. The Moon can be just sitting there in a quiet region of the magnetotail and then suddenly all this hot plasma goes sweeping by causing the nightside potential to spike to a kilovolt. Then it drops back again just as quickly."

The roller coaster of charge would be at its most dizzying during solar and geomagnetic storms. "That is a very dynamic time for the plasma sheet and we need to study what happens then," he says.

What happens then? Next-generation astronauts are going to find out. NASA is returning to the Moon in the decades ahead and plans to establish an outpost for long-term lunar exploration. It turns out they'll be exploring the magnetotail, too.

Author: Dr. Tony Phillips
Credit: Science@NASA

The Moon and the Magnetotail

SOURCE: NASA - Earth's Magnetic Field Does Strange Things to the Moon




ine particles of dust on the moon's surface can actually float off the ground when they become charged by electrons in Earth's magnetotail. Credit: NASA


Earth's magnetic field responds to the solar wind much like an airport wind sock: It stretches out with its tail pointing downwind. Credit: NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center- Conceptual Image Lab

Magnetospheric substorm animation

[zorgon]

Moondust in the Wind
April 10, 2008

Moondust is dry, desiccated stuff, and may seem like a dull topic to write about. Indeed, you could search a ton of moondust without finding a single molecule of water, so it could make for a pretty "dry" story. But like the dust in your mother's attic, moondust covers something interesting – the moon – and even the dust itself has curious tales to tell.

A group of NASA and University of Alabama researchers are what you might call "active listeners": Mian Abbas, James Spann, Richard Hoover and Dragana Tankosic have been shooting moondust with electrons, levitating moondust using electric fields, and scrutinizing moondust under an electron microscope. All this is happening at the National Space Science and Technology Center's "Dusty Plasma Lab" in Huntsville, Alabama.

Why such attention? Spann explains: "Humans will return to the moon in a few years and have to know what to expect. How do you live and work in a place filled with moondust? We're trying to find out."

"Moondust was a real nuisance for Apollo astronauts," adds Abbas. "It stuck to everything – spacesuits, equipment, instruments." The sharp-edged grains scratched faceplates, clogged joints, blackened surfaces and made dials all but unreadable. "The troublesome clinginess had a lot to do with moondust's electrostatic charge."

Dust on the moon is electrified, at least in part, by exposure to the solar wind. Earth is protected from the solar wind by our planet's magnetic field, but the moon has no global magnetic field to ward off charged particles from the sun. Free electrons in the solar wind interact with grains of moondust and, in effect, "charge them up."

Lunar surface charging and electric fields caused by sunlight and solar wind. Credit: Jasper Halekas and Greg Delory of U.C. Berkeley, and Bill Farrell and Tim Stubbs of the Goddard Space Flight Center.

At the Dusty Plasma Lab, the scientists simulate solar wind-like conditions to study the moon's dust in a realistic environment. In previous studies, Abbas and colleagues examined the effects of ultraviolet sunlight on grains of moondust to help construct theories about how moondust will behave during daylight hours on the moon. (UV photons can also charge up moondust.) Now they are investigating how the grains behave in the dark of night, when the swirling solar wind dominates "lunar weather."

"Fortunately, we know what the solar wind is like, so we can simulate it," says Spann.

In a typical experiment, Abbas peppers the dust grains with a beam of electrons from an electron gun. He suspends a single grain of moondust inside the vacuum test chamber and bombards the grain with different numbers of electrons.

"We've had some surprising results," says Abbas "We're finding that individual dust grains do not act the same as larger amounts of moon dust put together. Existing theories based on calculations of the charge of a large amount of moondust don't apply to the moondust at the single particle level."

Below: Illuminated by red laser light, a single speck of moondust hangs suspended in a vacuum chamber at the NSSTC's Dusty Plasma Lab.

When it comes to electrostatic charging, grains of moondust are individualists capable of eccentric and surprising behavior. For instance, in one experiment conducted by Abbas, pelting a positively charged grain of moondust with electrons (which carry a negative charge) caused the grain to exhibit a more positive charge. Consider that grain a contrarian! Abbas thinks that each electron hitting the grain dislodged two or more electrons already there, resulting in a net increase of positive charge.

Not all moondust behaves this way. How each grain reacts depends on a variety of factors including the grain's size, the charge it already carries, and the number of free electrons incoming.

Spann adds, "We believe the single grains will behave differently on the moon, too – not just in our lab. Our results are closer to what's really happening on the moon. We're saying, 'Hey wait a second guys. We're finding something odd. When you go to the moon, it's going to be a little different than you thought.'"

You can bet mission planners will be listening as the moondust tells its tale.

Author: Dauna Coulter | Editor: Dr. Tony Phillips | Credit: Science@NASA

Source: NASA - Moondust in the Wind



Mesmerized by Moondust

[zorgon]

Don't Breathe the Moondust
April 22, 2005

Don't Breathe the Moondust

When humans return to the Moon and travel to Mars, they'll have to be careful of what they inhale.

This is a true story.

In 1972, Apollo astronaut Harrison Schmitt sniffed the air in his Lunar Module, the Challenger. "[It] smells like gunpowder in here," he said. His commander Gene Cernan agreed. "Oh, it does, doesn't it?"

The two astronauts had just returned from a long moonwalk around the Taurus-Littrow valley, near the Sea of Serenity. Dusty footprints marked their entry into the spaceship. That dust became airborne--and smelly.

Don't Breathe the Moondust

The Mysterious Smell of Moondust
January 30, 2006


At the end of a long day on the moon, Apollo 17 astronaut Gene cernan rests inside the lunar module Challenger. Note the smudges of dust on his longjohns and forehead. Photo credit: Jack Schmitt.

Moondust. "I wish I could send you some," says Apollo 17 astronaut Gene Cernan. Just a thimbleful scooped fresh off the lunar surface. "It's amazing stuff."

Feel it—it's soft like snow, yet strangely abrasive.

Taste it—"not half bad," according to Apollo 16 astronaut John Young.

Sniff it—"it smells like spent gunpowder," says Cernan.

How do you sniff moondust?

see captionEvery Apollo astronaut did it. They couldn't touch their noses to the lunar surface. But, after every moonwalk (or "EVA"), they would tramp the stuff back inside the lander. Moondust was incredibly clingy, sticking to boots, gloves and other exposed surfaces. No matter how hard they tried to brush their suits before re-entering the cabin, some dust (and sometimes a lot of dust) made its way inside.

Once their helmets and gloves were off, the astronauts could feel, smell and even taste the moon.

The Mysterious Smell of Moondust

[Linda Brown]

I think that this sort of answered my queation?

"The ground, meanwhile, may leap into the sky. There is compelling evidence (see, e.g., the Surveyor 7 image below) that fine particles of moondust, when sufficiently charged-up, actually float above the lunar surface. This could create a temporary nighttime atmosphere of dust ready to blacken spacesuits, clog machinery, scratch faceplates (moondust is very abrasive) and generally make life difficult for astronauts.

Stranger still, moondust might gather itself into a sort of diaphanous wind. Drawn by differences in global charge accumulation, floating dust would naturally fly from the strongly-negative nightside to the weakly-negative dayside.OR...... differently stated?   

from negative to..... positive?

Is more negative to less negative  a shift in the direction that we are all more aware of?   Its interesting that they would find it imperitive to phrase it.... strongly negative to weakly negative... a change in potentials.... right?

Linda

[Tromprenard]

I think that this sort of answered my queation?

"The ground, meanwhile, may leap into the sky. There is compelling evidence (see, e.g., the Surveyor 7 image below) that fine particles of moondust, when sufficiently charged-up, actually float above the lunar surface. This could create a temporary nighttime atmosphere of dust ready to blacken spacesuits, clog machinery, scratch faceplates (moondust is very abrasive) and generally make life difficult for astronauts.

Stranger still, moondust might gather itself into a sort of diaphanous wind. Drawn by differences in global charge accumulation, floating dust would naturally fly from the strongly-negative nightside to the weakly-negative dayside.OR...... differently stated?   

from negative to..... positive?

Is more negative to less negative  a shift in the direction that we are all more aware of?   Its interesting that they would find it imperitive to phrase it.... strongly negative to weakly negative... a change in potentials.... right?

Linda

You are absolutely correct Linda.

There is golden knowledge in this forum, let it thrive and we shall nurture it with Mathematics if need be.  Forces are not completely understood here, but in a while it will become common knowledge.

Raymond
Your friendly retired MIB

[zorgon]

"The Smoking Plume"
Mission:  Lunar Orbiter 3
LO-3-213-H1

Look closely at the following image and you will notice areas that appear laid out in rectangular lines. like streets in a city...

You will also see lights glowing and even smoke in the distance 

(note: ignore the little crosses and the developer blobs... those are image artifacts and of no use to us. The crosses are on the photographic plate and the developer spots are from the process on board the orbiter)


LPI LO-3-213-H1 Click image for hi res copy






In the NEGATIVE View the area below the hill looks even more like a city, and you can see the plume and limb glow clearly (click on image to enlarge)

In the upper right of the image there is another plume and a glowing dome shaped light...



When you increase contrast that glow really pops up...

[zorgon]

Forces are not completely understood here, but in a while it will become common knowledge.

That's because no one ever gives us a straight answer

NASA - Never A Straight Answer

or as Robert Bigelow puts it..

NASA - No Access to Space for Americans

Your friendly retired MIB

I didn't know they allowed 'retirement'

Nice to see you back. Can I borrow your flashy thing?

[Linda Brown]

Ha!  Raymond doesn't get retired!!!! He just gets : retreaded" and sent down the road again!!!!!! 

kisses Trickfox   Linda

[rdunk]

zorgon, just to what do you attribute that "smoke plume" to?? Is the plume indicative of some amount of atmosphere, if it were just "rising smoke"?

What happens to a smoke plume in a vacuum/limited gravity environment? Does it rise straight up? Does it rise at all?

Have you considered this plume to possibly be the remnants of a "lift-off" by some thing, or somebody?? I think, that if this is actually a "plume", I might lean toward generation by a lift-off. I would "guess" the plume to be topped at a significant height, from the surface?? Would a lift-off plume fall? Fast or slow?

Really is some weird looking "stuff" in this photo! Just started looking!

[rdunk]

Re: the Plume - the more I look at that item, the less it looks like smoke or lift-off. The higher you go looking at it, the more defined it is. At and near the top end, the lines are very straight and they have a "formed appearance", and include one or two well defined "bends".

And the  very top section just looks different from the rest of it.  Also, there are what look like two anomalies in the bend, near the top, that have a white/lighter appearance. These can also be seen with a negative screen. And if one goes down to the next larger bend, there are two more anomalies of sorts - white on regular screen, and back on negative screen.. All of this is easier to discern with a well magnified screen

I suppose we could make conjecture on this plume-looking feature, for a long time, but, 
does anyone else think this may be something entirely different. Can the top of that thing see/listen to Earth 24/7/365, from its position?? Or see/listen anywhere on the moon as well??

Or, maybe a wormhole transition?? Or whatever???

[Linda Brown]

Hi!

I don't think that I have ever seen this phrase

Or, maybe a wormhole transitionand I wondered what it was that made you think of mentioning it when talking about this particular strange " plume'?    Linda