|
|
Strange Things Happen at Full Moon |
At full moon, our favorite satellite is whipped by Earth's magnetotail, causing lunar dust storms and
discharges of static electricity.
The
effect on the moon was first noticed in 1968, when NASA's Surveyor 7 lander
photographed a strange glow on the horizon after dark. Nobody knew what it was.
Now scientists think it was sunlight scattered by
electrically
charged moon dust floating just above the surface.
How it works
Our
entire planet is enveloped in a bubble of magnetism generated by the rotating
core. The solar wind, a stream of charged particles, pushes the bubble away
from the sun and creates a long tail of magnetized material downstream.
At
full moon, the moon passes
through a huge "plasma sheet" — hot charged particles trapped in the tail.
The lightest and most mobile of these particles, electrons, pepper the moon's
surface and give the moon a negative charge, the researchers explained. 
clipped from: www.space.com 
