Them's some pretty powerful laser beams if'n they'd make it all the way to the moon.
Posted on 08/18/2015 2:48:25 PM PDT by BenLurkin
Measurements from NASA’s Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer, aka LADEE (pronounced “laddie”) have confirmed the long-suspected presence of neon in its atmosphere ... along with isotopes of argon and helium. The relative concentrations of each of these elements also appears to depend on the time of day.
“The presence of neon in the exosphere of the moon has been a subject of speculation since the Apollo missions, but no credible detections were made,” said Mehdi Benna of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., and the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, lead author of a paper describing the findings. “We were very pleased to not only finally confirm its presence, but to show that it is relatively abundant.”
Of course, this has nothing to do with the appearance of the moon from Earth. Despite its “relative abundance” the amount of neon in the lunar atmosphere is much too sparse to actually create any visible glow.
These elements in the lunar atmosphere have their source in the solar wind. As this constant stream of charged particles from the sun encounters the moon, heavier elements remain on the surface while lighter and more volatile elements like neon and argon return to space… except for the small portion that get trapped by gravity.
While we say “atmosphere,” in realty what the moon has is an exosphere — an extremely diffuse cloud of atoms, ions, and fine dust particles held in place by the moon’s weak gravity. It’s nothing a human could breathe or even feel; it’s 100 trillion times less dense than air on Earth at sea level.
Still, it’s something that interacts with the solar wind environment and, possibly, whatever activities we may one day establish on the lunar surface.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.discovery.com ...
So now we just need to build some Tesla towers on the moon to electrify the atmosphere and we can make it glow. Full moon every night!
(Would probably drive the birds and other diurnal animals crazy though)
Them's some pretty powerful laser beams if'n they'd make it all the way to the moon.
No cheese?
Who knew Brooks and Dunn were so far ahead of their time?
That’s great! Maybe all the gay men who cause trouble will be willing to move there now!
“Whatever activities we may one day establish on the lunar surface”
I wanna build a storage facility on the moon. Maybe store some boats and RVs, too. I’ll call it Moon Storage. I’ll make a fortune.
![](http://rlv.zcache.com/eat_at_joes_print-re2c6201acba24021bce8beb883f972d1_dut_8byvr_512.jpg")
Prompt spot on picture post responses - one of the many things that amaze me ‘bout freepers.
My girlfriend’s niece back in the day called Boot Scootin Boogie The “Poop scoot boogie”
So that is where Dodge/Chrysler put all those old cars!
(Thank goodness it's not Uranus Burgers)
Good stuff. They have a great sound.
Thanks BenLurkin. Extra to APoD as well.
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Moon has liquid core just like Earth...reveal sensors left on surface by astronauts 40 YEARS ago
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/bloggers/2653683/posts
Moon Has 100 Times More Water, New Study Suggests
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2534692/posts
My dog used to do that dance on the carpet after he came in from outside :)
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