Meteor showers and cometary debris are kick back up lunar debris at rate much higher than ab initio assumed , producing towering clouds above the Moon ’s control surface . But what go up must come down — meaning it ’ll only be a matter of time before those iconic astronaut footprint will be gone constantly .
Though we ca n’t see it from Earth , the Moon boast a non - uniform layer of detritus just slightly above its surface . These towering clouds are comprised of tiny subatomic particle of moon and space junk kick - up by the dateless onslaught of incoming outer space debris . Such are the findings of a newNaturestudy by a University of Colorado research squad lead by physicist Mihaly Horanyi .
Because the Moon lacks an atmosphere , every undivided object caught in its graveness well is guarantee to strike its surface — including midget bits of dust . As noted in the Los Angeles Times’coverageof the unexampled cogitation , the moon encounters no less than five tons of space detritus each day , create mini - explosion that make the lunar dust to rise up up as much as 125 miles .
“ This is daylight in and day out , ” Horanyi told the LA Times . “ It is continuously ongoing . Every encroachment is just a little speck of dust being replaced , but finally , this process will erase the step of the first astronauts to step on the moon . ”
Horanyi give no reading as to when the Apollo footprints might go away , but his team ’s body of work hint they could be delete by gradual geological processes rather than via falling ejecta bring about by and handful of big encroachment .
Interestingly , the dust clouds are crooked . From the LA Times :
The scientist excuse that one side of the lunation — what [ take co - author James ] Szalay calls “ the front windshield ” — is more likely to get murder by especially fast moving atom that come from comets . Because these particles are moving at extra high-pitched speeds , they cause more dust to be shoot off the lunation when they hit . That lead to a junk cloud that is more dumb than on the “ rear windshield ” side of the moon .
The researchers now suspect that all airless bodies in the solar system have similar detritus cloud , including the moon of Mars and Mercury .
Muchmoreat the Los Angeles Times .
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