Speaker
Description
The Moon during most part of its orbit around the Earth is directly exposed to the solar wind. Due to the absence of a substantial intrinsic magnetic field and of a collisional atmosphere, solar wind and solar energetic particles (SEPs) arrive almost without any deviation or absorption and impact directly on its surface, interacting with the lunar regolith and the tenuous lunar exosphere. The same phenomenon occurs also with the galactic cosmic rays (GCRs), which present fluxes and energy spectra typical of interplanetary space. Energetic particles arriving at the Moon’s surface can be absorbed, or scattered, or produce albedo energetic particles, which in their turn contribute to the generation of a unique space weather environment. During 5 – 6 days every orbit, however, the Moon crosses the tail of the Earth’s magnetosphere, being exposed to terrestrial origin plasma and energetic particles. Electrostatic surface charging, dust levitation, meteoritic flux and the tenuous lunar exosphere are additional components of the lunar and cis-lunar space weather environment, which is thus a complex, multi-scale interacting system. Understanding this system is of paramount importance, in view of the wealth of forthcoming robotic and human missions, from the public or private sectors. Characterisation and monitoring of the lunar environment is also essential in order to asses the environmental impacts that human activity can have on the pristine Moon.
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