Open main menu
Home
Random
Recent changes
Special pages
Community portal
Preferences
About Wikipedia
Disclaimers
Incubator escapee wiki
Search
User menu
Talk
Dark mode
Contributions
Create account
Log in
Editing
Solar wind
(section)
Warning:
You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you
log in
or
create an account
, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.
Anti-spam check. Do
not
fill this in!
===Moons and planetary surfaces=== [[File:Aldrin Next to Solar Wind Experiment - GPN-2000-001211.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Apollo's [[Solar Wind Composition Experiment|SWC]] experiment]] [[File:AS11-40-5916.jpg|thumb|upright=0.8|Apollo's [[Solar Wind Composition Experiment]] on the Lunar surface]] [[Mercury (planet)|Mercury]], the nearest planet to the Sun, bears the full brunt of the solar wind, and since its atmosphere is vestigial and transient, its surface is bathed in radiation. Mercury has an intrinsic magnetic field, so under normal solar wind conditions, the solar wind cannot penetrate its magnetosphere and particles only reach the surface in the cusp regions. During coronal mass ejections, however, the magnetopause may get pressed into the surface of the planet, and under these conditions, the solar wind may interact freely with the planetary surface. The Earth's [[Moon]] has no atmosphere or intrinsic [[Magnetosphere|magnetic field]], and consequently its surface is bombarded with the full solar wind. The [[Apollo program|Project Apollo missions]] deployed passive aluminum collectors in an attempt to sample the solar wind, and lunar soil returned for study confirmed that the lunar [[regolith]] is enriched in atomic nuclei deposited from the solar wind. These elements may prove [[Lunar resources|useful resources]] for future lunar expeditions.<ref>{{Cite journal | last1 = Starukhina | first1 = L. V. | doi = 10.1016/j.asr.2005.04.033 | title = Polar regions of the moon as a potential repository of solar-wind-implanted gases | journal = Advances in Space Research | volume = 37 | issue = 1 | pages = 50β58 | year = 2006 |bibcode = 2006AdSpR..37...50S }}</ref>
Edit summary
(Briefly describe your changes)
By publishing changes, you agree to the
Terms of Use
, and you irrevocably agree to release your contribution under the
CC BY-SA 4.0 License
and the
GFDL
. You agree that a hyperlink or URL is sufficient attribution under the Creative Commons license.
Cancel
Editing help
(opens in new window)