no longer the moon Just a celestial body that reflects sunlight, but recent research has shown that it is directly affected by the planet even at the chemical level. Space scientists have concluded that the moon is rusting by the flow of charged particles and oxygen ions coming from the Earth’s atmosphere, in what is known as the phenomenon of “earth winds”.
How to reach the “ground wind” to the moon?
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During most days of the month, both the Earth and the moon are exposed to the flow of the charged particles coming from the sun, known as the solar wind. But for almost five days every month, when the Earth is between the sun and the moon, our planet blocks this flow, allowing the particles emitted from the Earth’s atmosphere to reach directly to the moon.
These particles, which include oxygen ions, hydrogen and nitrogen, penetrate lunar soil and interact with their minerals, causing unique chemical reactions.
Lunar rust: Where does the oxygen come from?
The metal responsible for this phenomenon is hematite (iron oxide), which is usually formed when iron -rich rocks interact with water and oxygen. Since the moon environment is poor in oxygen, oxygen ions from Earth through the “earth wind” explain this unexpected phenomenon.
The researcher Tesiliang Jin of the University of Macau for Science and Technology, and his team, simulated these conditions in a laboratory, where they exposed iron -rich lunar minerals to high -energy oxygen ions. The result: Some crystals turned into hematite (rust), while part of it later turned into iron due to an interaction with hydrogen ions.
A scientific experience that reveals the deep relationship between the earth and the moon
The experiment showed that the oxygen coming from the Earth can already reshape the nature of minerals on the surface of the moon, this discovery rewrites scientists’ understanding of the relationship between our planet and the moon, and confirms that the link between them is not only attractive or visually, but chemically and geologically as well.
The importance of discovering for the future of space exploration
These results reveal that lunar soil may be an important source of multiple resources, from the oxygen needed for life in future lunar bases, to silicon used in the manufacture of solar panels, through minerals and ceramic materials for construction.