Extremely high reflection of solar wind protons as neutral hydrogen atoms from regolith in space

Details Extremely high reflection of solar wind protons as neutral hydrogen atoms from regolith in space Extremely high reflection of solar wind protons as neutral hydrogen atoms from regolith in space

2010-12-14

arxiv.org/abs/1012.2972v1

Planetary and Space Science, Volume 57, Issue 14-15, p. 2132-2134, 2009

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Earth and Planetary Astrophysics

2 figures

Scientific paper

10.1016/j.pss.2009.09.012

We report on measurements of extremely high reflection rates of solar wind particles from regolith-covered lunar surfaces. Measurements by the Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer (SARA) instrument on the Indian Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft in orbit around the Moon show that up to 20% of the impinging solar wind protons are reflected from the lunar surface back to space as neutral hydrogen atoms. This finding, generally applicable to regolith-covered atmosphereless bodies, invalidates the widely accepted assumption that regolith almost completely absorbs the impinging solar wind.

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