The Moon and the Magnetotail

This is an intersting story I came across. We all know about our magnetosphere but did we know there was a 'tail' physorg.com says

"Earth's magnetotail extends well beyond the orbit of the Moon and, once a month, the Moon orbits through it," says Tim Stubbs, a University of Maryland scientist working at the Goddard Space Flight Center. "This can have consequences ranging from lunar 'dust storms' to electrostatic discharges."

and

"As a result, you can imagine how dynamic the charging environment on the Moon is. The Moon can be just sitting there in a quiet region of the magnetotail and then suddenly all this hot plasma goes sweeping by causing the nightside potential to spike to a kilovolt. Then it drops back again just as quickly."

Taking into account its own gravity and the 'battering' it gets from our magnetoshpere the Lunar environment would be very intersting during a megnetotail transit.

Could also help explain the full moon phenominon to those who buy into that.

Originally posted by VIKINGANT...Could also help explain the full moon phenominon to those who buy into that.

1. It looks like the Moon is in the magnetotail for about 1/3 (9 days) of the time during its orbit around the Earth.

2. I don't buy into the "Full Moon Phenomenon"...at least I don't buy that the full moon can PHYSICALLY affect a person, since the WHOLE moon is still there in the sky whether we can see the whole face or not. Therefore a quarter moon should have the same physical effect on us than the full moon does (the psychological effect is a different story).

[edit on 4/24/2008 by Soylent Green Is People]

Trust me. I dont go for the full moon effects either. It was just a thought. I just found the story interesting how the moon is effected by the earth much more than we originally thought.
Another thing I was thinking about is....With the moon inching away from us does the magnetoshphere have any effect in keeping it orbiting the earth in addition to out gravity? Probably not but it was just an idea since we know relatively little about it.

From the article:

Anyone can tell when the Moon is inside the magnetotail. Just look: "If the Moon is full, it is inside the magnetotail," says Stubbs. "The Moon enters the magnetotail three days before it is full and takes about six days to cross and exit on the other side."

So we know that the plasma sheath coincides with the full moon, completely. So it doesn't matter that the moon is whole in the sky whether we see it or not. Its the timing of the plasma and the timing of the full moon.

With this new information it lends credence to the "Full Moon Phenomenon". The voltage of the moon shoots up, particle and dust are magnetized etc. So its not just the sun illuminating the moon its also Earth's magnetotail giving it energy. Lets remember the human body is mostly water and our brains are electrical in nature.

We shouldn't dismiss the "Full Moon Phenomenon" so easily I reckon.