Atmosphere of the Moon

The atmosphere of the Moon is a very scant presence of gases surrounding t he Moon. For most
pract ical purposes, t he Moon is considered t o be surrounded by vacuum. The elevat ed presence of
at omic and molecular part icles in it s vicinit y compared t o int erplanet ary medium, referred t o as
"lunar atmosphere" for scient ific object ives, is negligible in comparison wit h t he gaseous envelopes
surrounding Eart h and most planet s of t he Solar Syst em. The pressure of t his small mass is around
3 × 10−15 at m (0.3 nPa), varying t hroughout t he day, and in t ot al mass less t han 10 met ric t onnes.[2][3]
Ot herwise, t he Moon is considered not t o have an at mosphere because it cannot absorb measurable
quant it ies of radiat ion, does not appear layered or self-circulat ing, and requires const ant
replenishment due t o t he high rat e at which it s gases get lost int o space.

At sunrise and sunset, many Apollo

crews saw glows and light rays.[1]
This Apollo 17 sketch depicts the
mysterious crepuscular rays.

Roger Joseph Boscovich was t he first modern ast ronomer t o argue for t he lack of at mosphere
around t he Moon in his De lunae atmosphaera (1753).

Sources

One source of t he lunar at mosphere is out gassing: t he release of gases such as radon and helium
result ing from radioact ive decay wit hin t he crust and mant le. Anot her import ant source is t he
bombardment of t he lunar surface by micromet eorit es, t he solar wind, and sunlight , in a process
known as sput t ering.[4]
Escape Velocity and atmospheric hold

Gases can:

be re-implant ed int o t he regolit h as a result of t he Moon's gravit y;

escape t he Moon ent irely if t he part icle is moving at or above t he lunar escape velocit y of
2.38 km/s (1.48 mi/s), or 5,328 mph (8,575 km/h);

be lost t o space eit her by solar radiat ion pressure or, if t he gases are ionized, by being swept away
in t he solar wind's magnet ic field.

Composition

What lit t le at mosphere t he Moon has consist s of some unusual gases, including sodium and
pot assium, which are not found in t he at mospheres of Eart h, Mars, or Venus. At sea level on Eart h,
each cubic cent imet er of t he at mosphere cont ains approximat ely 1019 molecules; by comparison
t he lunar at mosphere cont ains fewer t han 106 molecules in t he same volume. On Eart h, t his is
considered t o be a very good vacuum. In fact , t he densit y of t he at mosphere at t he Moon's surface
is comparable t o t he densit y of some of t he out ermost fringes of Eart h's at mosphere, where t he
Int ernat ional Space St at ion orbit s.[5]

The element s sodium and pot assium have been det ect ed in t he Moon's at mosphere using Eart h-
based spect roscopic met hods, whereas t he isot opes radon-222 and polonium-210 have been
inferred from dat a obt ained by t he Lunar Prospect or alpha part icle spect romet er.[6] Argon-40,
helium-4, oxygen and/or met hane (CH4), nit rogen (N2) and/or carbon monoxide (CO), and carbon
dioxide (CO2)) were det ect ed by in-sit u det ect ors placed by t he Apollo ast ronaut s.[7]

The average dayt ime abundances of t he element s known t o be present in t he lunar at mosphere, in
at oms per cubic cent imet er, are as follows:

Argon: 20,000–100,000[8]

Helium: 5,000–30,000[8]

Neon: up t o 20,000[8][9]

Sodium: 70

Pot assium: 17

Hydrogen: fewer t han 17

This yields approximat ely 80,000 t ot al at oms per cubic cent imet er, marginally higher t han t he
quant it y posit ed t o exist in t he at mosphere of Mercury.[7] While t his great ly exceeds t he densit y of
t he solar wind, which is usually on t he order of just a few prot ons per cubic cent imet er, it is virt ually
a vacuum in comparison wit h t he at mosphere of t he Eart h.

The Moon may also have a t enuous "at mosphere" of elect rost at ically levit at ed dust . See Moon dust
for more det ails.

Ancient atmosphere

In Oct ober 2017, NASA scient ist s at t he Marshall Space Flight Cent er and t he Lunar and Planet ary
Inst it ut e in Houst on announced t heir finding, based on st udies of Moon magma samples ret rieved by
t he Apollo missions, t hat t he Moon had once possessed a relat ively t hick at mosphere for a period
of 70 million years bet ween 3 and 4 billion years ago. This at mosphere, sourced from gases eject ed
from lunar volcanic erupt ions, was t wice t he t hickness of t hat of present -day Mars. It has been
t heorized, in fact , t hat t his ancient at mosphere could have support ed life, t hough no evidence of life
has been found.[10] The ancient lunar at mosphere was event ually st ripped away by solar winds and
dissipat ed int o space.[11]

See also

At mosphere of Mercury

Exosphere

Lunar At mosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE)

Orders of magnit ude (pressure)

Sodium t ail of t he Moon

References

1. Bell, Trudy E.; Phillips, Tony (7 December 2005). "Moon Storms" (https://science.nasa.gov/science-new
s/science-at-nasa/2005/07dec_ moonstorms/) . NASA.

2. Williams, David R. "Moon Fact Sheet" (http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/factsheet/moonfact.ht

ml) . NASA. Retrieved 16 November 2016.
 3. Globus, Ruth (1977). "Chapter 5, Appendix J: Impact Upon Lunar Atmosphere" (http://settlement.arc.na
sa.gov/75SummerStudy/5appendJ.html) . In Johnson, Richard D.; Holbrow, Charles (eds.). Space
Settlements: A Design Study. NASA. NASA SP-413.

4. Lucey, Paul; Korotev, Randy L.; Gillis, Jeffrey J.; Taylor, Larry A.; Lawrence, David; et al. (January 2006).
"Understanding the Lunar Surface and Space-Moon Interactions". Reviews in Mineralogy and
Geochemistry. 60 (1): 83–219. Bibcode:2006RvMG...60...83L (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2006RvM
G...60...83L) . doi:10.2138/rmg.2006.60.2 (https://doi.org/10.2138%2Frmg.2006.60.2) .

5. "Is There an Atmosphere on the Moon?" (http://www.nasa.gov/mission_ pages/LADEE/news/lunar-atm

osphere.html) . NASA. 12 April 2013.

6. Lawson, Stefanie L.; Feldman, William C.; Lawrence, David J.; Moore, Kurt R.; Elphic, Richard C.; et al.
(September 2005). "Recent outgassing from the lunar surface: The Lunar Prospector Alpha Particle
Spectrometer" (https://doi.org/10.1029%2F2005JE002433) . Journal of Geophysical Research. 110
(E9): E09009. Bibcode:2005JGRE..110.9009L
(https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005JGRE..110.9009L) . doi:10.1029/2005JE002433 (https://doi.or
g/10.1029%2F2005JE002433) .

7. Stern, S. Alan (1999). "The lunar atmosphere: History, status, current problems, and context". Reviews
of Geophysics. 37 (4): 453–491. Bibcode:1999RvGeo..37..453S (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/1999R
vGeo..37..453S) . CiteSeerX 10.1.1.21.9994 (https://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/summary?doi=10.1.
1.21.9994) . doi:10.1029/1999RG900005 (https://doi.org/10.1029%2F1999RG900005) .

8. Benna, M.; Mahaffy, P. R.; Halekas, J. S.; Elphic, R. C.; Delory, G. T. (May 2015). "Variability of helium, neon,
and argon in the lunar exosphere as observed by the LADEE NMS instrument" (https://doi.org/10.100
2%2F2015GL064120) . Geophysical Research Letters. 42 (10): 3723–3729.
Bibcode:2015GeoRL..42.3723B (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2015GeoRL..42.3723B) .
doi:10.1002/2015GL064120 (https://doi.org/10.1002%2F2015GL064120) . "Neon was detected over
the nightside at levels comparable to He and was found to exhibit the spatial distribution of a surface
accommodated noncondensable gas."

9. Steigerwald, William A. (17 August 2015). "NASA's LADEE Spacecraft Finds Neon in Lunar Atmosphere"
(http://www.nasa.gov/content/goddard/ladee-lunar-neon) . NASA. Retrieved 18 August 2015.

10. Ciaccia, Chris (July 24, 2018). "Life on the Moon? New study argued life could have existed on the lunar
surface" (http://www.foxnews.com/science/2018/07/24/life-on-moon-new-study-argued-life-could-ha
ve-existed-on-lunar-surface.html) . Fox News.

11. "NASA: The Moon Once Had an Atmosphere That Faded Away" (http://time.com/4974580/nasa-moon
-had-atmosphere-volcanoes/) . Time. Retrieved 16 April 2018.

 This art icle incorporat es public domain mat erial (ht t p://www.jsc.nasa.gov/policies.ht ml#Guidelin
es) from t he Nat ional Aeronaut ics and Space Administ rat ion document : "Is There an At mosphere
on t he Moon?" (ht t p://www.nasa.gov/mission_ pages/LADEE/news/lunar-at mosphere.ht ml) .