Earth’s Atmosphere Reaches the Moon via Solar Wind, Study Finds
A new study, supported by Apollo samples, argues that particles from Earth’s atmosphere have been carried into space by the solar wind and embedded in the Moon’s soil for billions of years. Contrary to earlier ideas that Earth’s magnetic field blocked such transfer, the modern magnetosphere may aid it by expanding Earth’s atmospheric reach and by channeling material to the Moon through the magnetotail when the Moon is in certain orbital phases. This ongoing Earth–Moon material exchange could supply volatile elements like oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen for future lunar exploration and provides a chemical record of Earth’s ancient atmosphere, with the findings published in Nature Communications Earth & Environment.
