Posted on 01/31/2017 7:01:49 AM PST by Bloody Sam Roberts
Life on Earth may have made its mark on the moon billions of years before Neil Armstrong’s famous first step.
Observations by Japan’s moon-orbiting Kaguya spacecraft suggest that oxygen atoms from Earth’s upper atmosphere bombard the moon’s surface for a few days each month. This oxygen onslaught began in earnest around 2.4 billion years ago when photosynthetic microbes first flourished (SN Online: 9/8/15), planetary scientist Kentaro Terada of Osaka University in Japan and colleagues propose January 30 in Nature Astronomy.
The oxygen atoms begin their incredible journey in the upper atmosphere, where they are ionized by ultraviolet radiation, the researchers suggest. Electric fields or plasma waves accelerate the oxygen ions into the magnetic cocoon that envelops Earth. One side of that magnetosphere stretches away from the sun like a flag in the wind. For five days each lunar cycle, the moon passes through the magnetosphere and is barraged by earthly ions, including oxygen.
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencenews.org ...
But my biggest question is for those Global Warming proponents who state "the science is settled".
How does this new information fit into their reasoning?
Surely something of this nature would be a notable variable in any GW model.
Plus, the author should know the difference between an atom (headline) and an ion (body of article).
Big difference. And better info at link in article.
Unless it's not...
What if the moon decides to retaliate?!?!
Happens every time Michael Moore opens his mouth.
TRUMP’S FAULT!!
(Come on. You KNOW it’ll happen)
;-)
Good thing we have excess CO2 so plants can make more oxygen to replace all the oxygen that has escaped to the moon for the past 2.4 BILLION years.
If we're bombarding the moon with Oxygen, what are we gonna do when we run out? And why not send Nitrogen anyway?
ML/NJ
Personally, I think some Japanese researchers are bombarding us with horse manure even as we speak.
I’m definitely feeling the effects of it as long as I keep reading the article; so I think I’ll stop.
I think most people would be surprised to learn that the space station orbits within the Earth’s atmosphere. I don’t think we can yet say the same about the Moon.
The moon is - it's sending back carbon dioxide. :-)
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