Abstract

Electrostatic Dust Transport Effects on Shaping the Surface Properties of the Moon and Airless Bodies across the Solar System

Highlights

  • Later, evidence for such electrostatic dust activity was obtained by instrument measurements and astronaut observations taken during the Apollo missions

  • The bright glow about 30 cm above the lunar surface was believed to be due to sunlight forward scattered by a cloud of dust particles (~10 μm in diameter) that were electrostatically levitated above the surface in the lunar terminator region [Criswell, 1973]. This lofting height is shown to be consistent with a recent observation by the Chang’e-3 rover, which identifies a layer of fine dust on lunar rocks up to ~28 cm high [Yan et al, 2019]. Evidence for such electrostatic dust activity was obtained by instrument measurements and astronaut observations taken during the Apollo missions

  • Later work analyzing different Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites Experiment (LEAM) datasets [Grün and Horányi, 2013], found no significant rate enhancement associated with the terminator crossing

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Summary

Introduction

Evidence for such electrostatic dust activity was obtained by instrument measurements and astronaut observations taken during the Apollo missions. A number of observations on the Moon and other airless bodies have indicated the occurrence of this electrostatic process, which has attracted increased attention because this process may play a significant role in shaping the physical and spectral properties of the regolith on these bodies. While observed in the laboratory, the fundamental problem of how dust particles obtain sufficiently large charge to initially become lofted or mobilized on airless bodies, remained a challenge to theoretical explanation.

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