A lunar terminator configuration

Abstract

Although introduced more than two decades ago, electrostatic soil transport on the lunar surface remains a controversial subject due, primarily, to insufficiently high surface fields and particle charges to initiate and sustain the phenomenon. This paper introduces a realistic geometrical configuration for the terminators which plausibly provides adequate fields and charges. Myriads of miniature sunlit islands and dark valleys are formed in the vicinity of a zig-zag terminator line as it moves. The islands and valleys are surrounded by areas of opposite electrical polarity, providing local field regions up to thousands of volts per centimeter. The result is random directional movement of electrostatically charged lunar fines. It is shown that the mechanism can readily account for the denuding of certain asteroids while others exhibit a layer of dust on their surface.