Detection of m/q = 2 pickup ions in the plasma environment of the Moon: The trace of exospheric H2+

Details Detection of m/q = 2 pickup ions in the plasma environment of the Moon: The trace of exospheric H2+ Detection of m/q = 2 pickup ions in the plasma environment of the Moon: The trace of exospheric H2+

Jul 2011

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2011georl..3814204w&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 38, Issue 14, CiteID L14204

Physics

Plasma Physics

1

Interplanetary Physics: Pickup Ions, Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects: Moon (1221), Space Plasma Physics: Charged Particle Motion And Acceleration

Scientific paper

The Solar Wind Ion Detectors (SWIDs) on the Chang'E-1 spacecraft, while orbiting the Moon, occasionally observed two continuous flux peaks with energies not exceeding 8 and 4 times that of the prevailing solar wind proton energy. These form parallel curves (PCs) with an energy ratio of 2 in the energy-time spectrogram. The fluxes of the two curves are comparable, around 10-5 ˜ 10- 4 of the solar wind flux. The pitch angle distribution of PC particles is concentrated around 90°. The velocity space distribution of PC particles shows distinct double-ring feature, suggesting the existence of a pickup ion species with m/q = 2. Pickup ions from local interstellar medium, the inner sources and the lunar exosphere are investigated. We conclude that this observation may be the first in situ evidence for H2+ ions in the lunar exosphere, thus providing new insights on the evolution and fate of solar wind hydrogen in the solar system.

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