The Moon Landing and the Earth's Magnetotail

Stranger still, moondust might gather itself into a sort of diaphanous wind. Drawn by differences in global charge accumulation, floating dust would naturally fly from the strongly-negative nightside to the weakly-negative dayside. This "dust storm" effect would be strongest at the Moon's terminator, the dividing line between day and night.

science.nasa.gov... etotail/

This statement is followed by Stubbs stating that the Apollo astronauts never landed during a full moon, as has already been discussed.

However, there is this speculation that a 'dust storm' would be strongest at the Moon's terminator. And didn't the astronauts land near to this dividing line between day and night so that the effects of the sun's heat would not be so great? That being the case, I would think if this speculation of this diaphanous wind holds any weight, they would have experienced or seen something.

Especially so with the Apollo 12 mission landing 8.5 hours short of the three day preceding mark for a full moon and magnetotail.

Below are pictures taken by Surveyor 7, and a description:

Above: In 1968, on many occasions, NASA's Surveyor 7 moon lander photographed a strange "horizon glow" after dark. Researchers now believe the glow is sunlight scattered from electrically-charged moondust floating just above the lunar surface.

Timestop 0:15
shows magnetic reconnection within the magnetotail
It starts with a layer being added
then internal pressure forces two inner line together.

Of course this is a greatly simplified video to show the context.

The Magnetotail can show a great deal more turbulence then that.



Here is a simulation from Japan.
It is far more complicated, but is showing
a simplification method that still contains all the same complexity.
At the very very end it shows Magnetic Reconnection.



Now what effect does this have on the Moon 6 days out of the year.
On that, I can still find nothing.

This is interesting though.

It shows how the magnetotail may influence the approach of orbiting bodies.
They seem to be approaching, but not quite reaching, the limit of coplanar orbits.
In other words the Magnetotail may be the reason the Moon even has a chance of eclpsing the sun
from our perspective.


David Grouchy

This has been a very interesting read Thanks for posting

Phage once again thank you for your enlightenment. I enjoy reading your opinion. I wish more would find this post it is very interesting. I still think the tracks would be at least a little blurred on sat. pics. but no crystal clear.
Not saying just saying Capricorn One..........

reply to post by kalunom


Doesn't the moon have its own magnetosphere?

I think we will be fine on future missions regardless of the charge. Keep in mind, what ever is on the surface would be equally charged.

Originally posted by kalunom

Originally posted by Phage
According to the chart you linked, the full Moon occurred on the 23rd at 23:54. The 2nd EVA ended on the 20th at 07:44. I make that to be about 16 hours before the "crossing".

The ascent module lifted off at 14:25; 8.5 hours before the "crossing".

Sorry. They weren't there at the time.

Cutting that slice pretty dang thin, I'd say.

That's kinda what I thought. I mean, what if something went wrong and they weren't able to escape in time? And just having that on your mind would make you pretty nervous and would effect your concentration. Why take a risk like that?

What's the big deal about the magnetotail anyway? I thought it was just a part of the magnetosphere which we are all inside of anyway... I would think it would be safer inside the magnetotail to get some protection from the suns energies...

That's kinda what I thought. I mean, what if something went wrong and they weren't able to escape in time? And just having that on your mind would make you pretty nervous and would effect your concentration. Why take a risk like that?

What's the big deal about the magnetotail anyway? I thought it was just a part of the magnetosphere which we are all inside of anyway... I would think it would be safer inside the magnetotail to get some protection from the suns energies...

And for NASA to say, definitively, that they have never had astronauts on the moon, whilst passing through the Earth's magnetotail, without even mentioning that they came to within 8.5 hours (as pointed out by Phage) of doing so, is highly suspect and strange to me. Makes me think that they had absolutely no idea.

But, suspicion gets us nothing and nowhere. As with most things, the Devil is in the details. The Devil here being small (miniscule on a planetary scale) details that can debunk an entire theory.

The big deal is that it is largely unknown what the effect of it would be. It is, apparently, unknown. At least to us. There is about as much information as I and others have found in the thread, hope you had/have a good read!