Lunar atmospheric H2 detections by the LAMP UV spectrograph on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

Abstract

We report on the detection of H2 as seen in our analysis of twilight observations of the lunar atmosphere observed by the LAMP instrument aboard NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Using a large amount of data collected on the lunar atmosphere between September 2009 and March 2013, we have detected and identified, the presence of H2 in the native lunar atmosphere, for the first time. We derive a surface density for H2 of 1.2±0.4×103cm−3 at 120K. This is about 10 times smaller than originally predicted, and several times smaller than previous upper limits from the Apollo era data.