Physics
Scientific paper
Aug 1999
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=1999natur.400..642y&link_type=abstract
Nature, Volume 400, Issue 6745, pp. 642-644 (1999).
Physics
63
Scientific paper
Mercury and the Moon both have tenuous atmospheres that contain atomic sodium and potassium. These chemicals must be continuously resupplied, as neither body can retain the atoms formore than a few hours (refs 1-6). The mechanisms proposed to explain the resupply include sputtering of the surface by the solar wind,, micrometeorite impacts, thermal desorption and photon-stimulated desorption. But there are few data and no general agreement about which processes dominate,. Here wereport laboratory studies of photon-stimulated desorption of sodium from surfaces that simulate lunar silicates. We find that bombardment of such surfaces at temperatures of ~250K by ultraviolet photons (wavelength λ< 300nm) causes very efficient desorption of sodium atoms, induced by electronic excitations rather than by thermal processes or momentum transfer. The fluxat the lunar surface of ultraviolet photons from the Sun is sufficient to ensure that photon-stimulated desorption of sodium contributes substantially to the Moon's atmosphere. On Mercury, solar heating of the surface implies that thermal desorption will also be an important source of atmospheric sodium.
Madey Theodore E.
Yakshinskiy Boris V.
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