Lunar Dust Transport Still a Mystery

Sketches made by the Apollo 17 crew of rays created by lofted lunar dust. Credit: NASA

There are times when Moon appears to have a tenuous atmosphere of moving dust particles that are leaping up from and falling back to the Moon’s surface. First seen during the Surveyor and Apollo eras, these observations were completely unexpected, and scientists today are still trying to understand this phenomenon.

The first indication that something strange was going on with the lunar surface was in the 1960’s when cameras on the Surveyor spacecraft pointing towards the western horizon noticed a brighter hovering cloud that persisted for several hours. (…) Read the rest of Lunar Dust Transport Still a Mystery (871 words)

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