Earth’s atmosphere is escaping to the Moon

The Moon doesn’t have an atmosphere as such, but the Earth has, in some ways, been trying to share itss for billions of years. A new study concludes that our planet’s magnetic field may be channeling particles from the Earth’s atmosphere to the lunar surface.

A surprising abundance of volatile elements has been detected in lunar regoliththe fine, rocky dust that covers the surface of the Moon since Apollo astronauts brought samples to Earth.

O solar wind is one of the possible sources of these volatiles, but, in itself, cannot explain the observed levels, especially in the case of nitrogen. Small meteorites hitting the Moon may also be altering the lunar surface.

The Earth’s atmosphere has also been identified as a potential source, but it was assumed that this would only have been possible before the planet’s magnetic field had developed; Once established, this field would have trapped most atmospheric particles.

A new one, led by astrophysicists at the University of Rochester, and published last week in Nature Communications Earth & Environmentanalyzed this idea.

The team simulated two scenarios to understand which one best fit the data: one model of “primitive Earth”, without magnetic field and with a more intense solar wind, and a model of “modern Earth”, with a strong magnetic field and a weaker solar wind.

Somewhat unexpectedlythe modern Earth scenario was the one that best explained the results. The solar wind rips charged particles from the atmospherecausing them to follow along the planet’s magnetic field lines.

Earth’s magnetosphere is not, as the name might suggest, a perfect sphere. On the contrary, it has a shape more similar to a comet’s taildue to the constant pressure of the solar wind. And when the Moon crosses this “tail”, part of these particles is deposited on the lunar surfaceexplains .

Previous studies had already suggested that a similar mechanism could be transporting oxygen to the Moon, and even causing it to

The results of the new study now suggest that this process has been taking place over billions of yearsgiving enough time for these volatile particles to accumulate in the lunar regolith.

And given that Earth’s atmosphere has changed drastically over this period, it is possible that the Moon’s surface preserves a valuable time capsule — with historical data on the evolution of our planet and its natural satellite.