A team of Russian scientists has developed a mathematical model to study the height of charged dust particles above the sunlit surface of the Moon at almost any latitude.
For the first time, the model takes into account Earth’s magnetic tail, a region formed by the pressure that the solar wind creates on the planet’s magnetosphere.
In the research paper published in the journal Physics of Plasmas, scientists from the Higher School of Economics, Russian Research University point out that the research data is important for planning the Luna-25 and Luna-27 space missions. In space, the Moon is surrounded by plasma (ionized gas), which contains dust particles of solid matter. On the moon, dust particles affected by solar wind photons, electrons and ions acquire a positive charge.
Its interaction with the surface of the moon with a positive charge causes it to bounce, move, and form dusty (dusty) plasma.