Moondust
I would never have thought moondust to be interesting -- after all, dust is dust, isn't it? Why does it matter where it came from? I would have thought wrong had I thought about moondust. NASA thinks it is interesting enough to have staffed the Dusty Plasma Laboratory to study the samples brought back by the Apollo 17 and Luna 24 missions.
During the day, the Moon is bombarded with UV radiation which knocks electrons off the dust particles, giving them a positive charge. The astronauts who walked on the Moon complained about the dust. It cling to and got into, everything. That, the theory goes, is because moondust suffers from an extreme case of static cling. It is even theorized that moondust becomes so positively charged that the launch themselves off the surface of the Moon, until gravity drags them back down -- creating a virtual atmosphere of dust on the Moon. Theory anyways. And so the theory goes, that at night, when solar wind curves around the Moon, bombarding the night side with free electrons, the dust becomes negatively charged.
All this makes for a more dynamic Moon than the dead Moon we've all been led to believe exists.
During the day, the Moon is bombarded with UV radiation which knocks electrons off the dust particles, giving them a positive charge. The astronauts who walked on the Moon complained about the dust. It cling to and got into, everything. That, the theory goes, is because moondust suffers from an extreme case of static cling. It is even theorized that moondust becomes so positively charged that the launch themselves off the surface of the Moon, until gravity drags them back down -- creating a virtual atmosphere of dust on the Moon. Theory anyways. And so the theory goes, that at night, when solar wind curves around the Moon, bombarding the night side with free electrons, the dust becomes negatively charged.
All this makes for a more dynamic Moon than the dead Moon we've all been led to believe exists.
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