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Oxygen From Earth's Atmosphere May Be Traveling To the Moon's Surface (theverge.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from The Verge: New research shows that oxygen from Earth could be journeying all the way out to the Moon, where it then gets lodged inside the lunar soil. It's a process that's likely been happening for 2.4 billion years, ever since oxygen formed around our planet, meaning the Moon's soil may contain trapped particles from Earth's ancient atmosphere. This oxygen exchange, detailed in a study published today in Nature Astronomy, supposedly occurs for just a few days during the Moon's 27-day orbit. Most of the time, the Moon is constantly being blasted with solar wind -- fast streams of charged particles emanating from the Sun. But for five days of every lunar orbit, the Moon passes into Earth's magnetotail, the portion of the planet's magnetic field that stretches outward away from the Sun. This tail shields the Moon from the solar wind, and allows charged oxygen ions from Earth to travel to the lunar surface, according to the study. That means the Moon -- a dead rock incapable of supporting life -- is being showered with the byproducts of life here on Earth. In fact, the source of most of the oxygen in our atmosphere is biological, created by plants during photosynthesis. It's a process that experts have suspected for a while but haven't been able to confirm until today. Researchers have also suggested that other atmospheric components, such as nitrogen and noble gases, are getting to the Moon this way based on lunar soil samples.
Monsanto is planning to sue the moon if any pollen from their corn get there.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
go look up what plants do
What plants do does not include creating oxygen from other elements with nuclear processes. That's why you're an AC troll and we're not.
What "new" gravitational strength are you talking about? If Ceres were to collide with Luna, Luna's gravity would hardly be changed. Hell, if the entire Asteroid Belt were to collide with Luna, you might see a 5% increase in Lunar gravity. Maybe....
"I do not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it"
What's really funny is that this could be the truth.
Some viruses are thought to be small enough to escape the Earth's atmosphere. Bacterial spores are considerably larger, but still small enough that the panspermia hypothesis --that life on Earth was originally seeded by space-borne spores-- is a viable concept (not necessarily true, but cannot be dismissed by anything within current scientific knowledge). When you consider that the upper atmosphere is under constant bombardment by meteors, there is enough outside energy being introduced at local levels to propel even large pieces of dust, pollens, spores, and virus particles into the region where magnetospheric influences become more significant than Earth gravity.
Since lunar regolith has been collecting and probably preserving stuff for at least as long as life on Earth has existed, there might be detectable levels of viruses or even spores or possibly grains of pollen in the Moon dust. I wonder if anyone has bothered to look for that yet? I am guessing not; I doubt that anyone has even done the theoretical work to estimate the amount of bioactive substances that might be present in Moon dust.
As to Monsanto's role in all this--- yes, their corporate history demonstrates a willingness to file lawsuits whenever one of their pet plants escapes the designated plots of those who buy Monsanto's devilseed. :)
I was always told that heavier molecules like oxygen tend to stay towards earth's ground and lighter gases like helium are at the top of our atmosphere. How they manage to get oxygen out of this is beyond me.
They probably will go after the lunar dust first. That thing is abrasive as hell, and probably useful in some industry.
True, that.
Early lunar habitats will be built of cinderbrick and mortar made from regolith. It is very likely that a strong enough construction material can be made by simply sifting the regolith for the right size particles, adding water, and pouring the slurry into forms.
It probably won't even need to be baked. If baking is necessary, then that can be easily done in solar ovens using batch processes on a two week schedule.
I don't know what plants do, but I do know they crave electrolytes.
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