Enlarge / Artist’s depiction of the LADEE mission above the lunar landscape. (credit: NASA/Dana Berry)
The Moon’s atmosphere is barely perceptible, largely due to its low gravitational pull; whether it ever possessed a more substantial atmosphere in its ancient past remains a topic for scientific discussion. Current understanding suggests that what we observe today is mainly an exosphere, gradually sustained by impacts from meteoroids.
Throughout its 4.5 billion years of existence, the Moon has been relentlessly bombarded by space debris ranging from large meteors to tiny micrometeoroids, often no bigger than grains of sand. Recent research conducted by scientists from MIT and the University of Chicago indicates that lunar soil samples obtained by astronauts during the Apollo missions provide compelling evidence that these impacts continuously introduce a variety of atoms into the lunar exosphere.
A portion of these introduced atoms may escape into space or settle back onto the lunar surface; however, those that remain contribute to an ephemeral atmosphere above the Moon which undergoes constant renewal with each meteor strike.
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