Every object, planet or person traveling through space has to contend with the Sun's damaging radiation — and the Moon has the scars to prove it. Research using data from NASA's ARTEMIS mission — short for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics of the Moon’s Interaction with the Sun — suggests how the solar wind and the Moon's crustal magnetic fields work together to give the Moon a distinctive pattern of darker and lighter swirls. — NASA — Return to the Moon Source: NASA (https://images.nasa.gov/) Licence: Public domain (work of the U.S. federal government, 17 U.S.C. §105) Audio is served by the publisher; Budi does not host or modify it.
0:02To every astronaut or spacecraft, the Sun is a damaging source of radiation. All objects traveling through space must contend with this hazard, including planets. Even the Moon has the scars to prove it. New NASA research suggests that some of the coloration we see on the Moon could actually be a form of sunburn. The leading hypothesis is that the magnetic fields are blocking some portion of the solar wind from reaching the surface. The solar wind is the Sun's continuous outflow of particles and radiation that fills the inner solar system. A magnetic field provides a strong, global shield against it. However, the magnetic field on the Moon is much weaker, and it forms only small, localized bubbles of protection.
0:41In these spots, the Sun's particles can be reflected back into the solar wind or funneled to nearby regions. The shielded areas under the magnetic fields form pale swirls. Those bordering parts become darker. The contrast is so prominent we can actually see it from Earth. The magnetic fields in some region are locally acting as this magnetic sunscreen. You know, sometimes you put on sunscreen and you miss like a tiny little bit and then you have a really bright red spot on your skin where you missed it. That's in some ways the analogy of this sort of region of the Moon that is extra exposed. Unfortunately, the Moon's patches of magnetic field are not robust enough to completely protect human explorers from the Sun's radiation.
1:21But further study of lunar magnetic fields could lay the groundwork for future innovations. Well what if we got a strong enough magnetic field that perhaps we could produce artificially? That's a question that I think remains to be answered, but the crustal magnetic fields on the Moon and lunar swirls kind of provide a hint in that direction that we might be able to learn something about.
This transcript was generated automatically from the recording, so it will contain mistakes — especially around names and places.