This will not be the first time China ventures into space. (Photo : Reuters)
New study found out that moon contains permanent asymmetrical mist of dust clouds, mixing up from the lunar surface. Researchers are sure that the mist of dust in the moon is actually clouds caused by high-speed space collisions and it is much less dense than the one observed in the 1960s .
According to physicist Mihaly Horanyi from University of Colorado Boulder, just a single particle from a passing comet can raise thousands of smaller dust particles up into the thin air, as documented in the journal Nature. Researchers added that during the annual meteor showers, clouds grow denser especially the Geminids.
NASA scientists have used the defunct Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explore (LADEE) to observe the moon dust particles that whirl up at the spacecraft as it circled the moon with an altitudes ranging from about 13 miles to about 62 miles above the surface.
LADEE’s Lunar Dust Experiment have discovered an estimated 140,000 dust hits during its 80 days of cumulative observation time between October 2013 and April 2014. In contrast with Jupiter’s clouds on its icy moons, which is roughly spherically symmetric, clouds on Earth’s moons is asymmetrical and permanent, as per Discovery News report.
Horanyi explained that his interest in moon’s dust particle originated when he became a one of the researchers in NASA's Galileo mission for dust detector system to Jupiter and its moons in the 1990s. The Galileo instrument uncovered fine clouds of dust that surrounds the Jupiter’s moons; Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.
Researchers pointed out that the new study can help avoiding any potential hazard for more future human space exploration.
