Electrons from Earth may be forming water on the Moon

A team of researchers, led by a University of Hawai'i at Manoa planetary scientist, discovered that high energy electrons in Earth's plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on the Moon's surface and, importantly, the electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar surface.

Previously, scientists mostly focused on the role of high energy ions on the space weathering of the Moon and other airless bodies. Solar wind, which is composed of high energy particles such as protons, bombards the lunar surface and is thought to be one of the primary ways in which water has been formed on the Moon.

"This provides a natural laboratory for studying the formation processes of lunar surface water," said Li."When the Moon is outside of the magnetotail, the lunar surface is bombarded with solar wind. Inside the magnetotail, there are almost no solar wind protons and water formation was expected to drop to nearly zero."

"To my surprise, the remote sensing observations showed that the water formation in Earth's magnetotail is almost identical to the time when the Moon was outside of the Earth's magnetotail," said Li."This indicates that, in the magnetotail, there may be additional formation processes or new sources of water not directly associated with the implantation of solar wind protons.

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Electrons from Earth may be forming water on the moonA team of researchers, led by a University of Hawai'i (UH) at Mānoa planetary scientist, discovered that high energy electrons in Earth's plasma sheet are contributing to weathering processes on the moon's surface and, importantly, the electrons may have aided the formation of water on the lunar surface. The study was published in Nature Astronomy.
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