Related papers: Modeling the Lunar plasma wake
The solar wind plasma from the Sun interacts with the Moon, generating a wake structure behind it, since the Moon is to a good approximation an insulator, has no intrinsic magnetic field and a very thin atmosphere. The lunar wake in…
We study the interaction between the Moon and the solar wind using a three-dimensional hybrid plasma solver. The proton fluxes and electromagnetical fields are presented for typical solar wind conditions with different magnetic field…
Solar system bodies that lack a significant atmosphere and significant internal magnetic fields, such as the Moon and asteroids, have been considered as passive absorbers of the solar wind. However, ion observations near the Moon by the…
A plasma void forms downstream of the Moon when the solar wind impacts the lunar surface. This void gradually refills as the solar wind passes by, forming the lunar wake. We investigate this refilling process using a fully kinetic…
When the solar wind encounters the Moon, a plasma void forms downstream of it, known as the lunar wake. In regions where the magnetic field is quasi-parallel to the plasma-vacuum boundary normal, plasma refills the wake primarily along…
The wake behind a large object (such as the moon) moving rapidly through a plasma (such as the solar wind) contains a region of depleted density, into which the plasma expands along the magnetic field, transverse to the flow. It is shown…
The complex interplay between the Solar Wind and the lunar surface serves as a quintessential example of space weathering. However, uncertainties persist regarding the influence of plasma originating from Earth's ionosphere, necessitating a…
Ion pickup at the outer planets' active moons is a fundamental plasma process in which newly ionized particles from moon exospheres interact with the ambient corotating plasma and are accelerated to match the background flow. Spacecraft…
The extent to which a magnetosphere protects its planetary atmosphere from stellar wind ablation depends upon how well it prevents energy and momentum exchange with the atmosphere and how well it traps otherwise escaping plasma. We focus on…
Understanding the sources of lunar water is crucial for studying the history of lunar evolution, and also the solar wind interaction with the Moon and other airless bodies. Recent observations revealed lunar hydration is very likely a…
Planetary habitability is in part determined by the atmospheric evolution of a planet; one key component of such evolution is escape of heavy ions to space. Ion loss processes are sensitive to the plasma environment of the planet, dictated…
Looking at the Mars-solar wind interaction on a larger spatial scale than the near Mars region, the planet can be seen as an ion source interacting with the solar wind, in many ways like a comet, but with a smaller ion source region. Here…
We report the first observation of protons in the near (100--200 km from surface) and deeper (near anti-subsolar point) lunar plasma wake when the interplanetary magnetic field (IMF) and solar wind velocity ($v_{sw}$) are parallel (aligned…
An object's wake in a plasma with small Debye length that drifts \emph{across} the magnetic field is subject to electrostatic electron instabilities. Such situations include, for example, the moon in the solar wind wake and probes in…
The solar wind wake behind the moon is studied with 1D electrostatic particle-in-cell (PIC) simulations using a physical ion to electron mass ratio (unlike prior investigations); the simulations also apply more generally to supersonic flow…
Cool and dense prominences found in the solar atmosphere are known to be partially ionized because of their relative low temperature. In this Letter, we address the long-standing problem of how the neutral component of the plasma in…
The last 60 years of space exploration have shown that the interplanetary medium is continually perturbed by a myriad of different solar winds and storms that transport solar material across the whole heliosphere. If there is a consensus on…
Characterised by a surface bound exosphere and localised crustal magnetic fields, the Moon was considered as a passive object when solar wind interacts with it. However, the neutral particle and plasma measurements around the Moon by recent…
A simple collisional three-component plasma model consisting of electrons, ions, and neutrals with arbitrary collision frequencies and dynamic time scales is considered. It is shown that the usual MHD-approach dealing with magnetic field…
Pickup ions are created when interstellar neutral atoms resonantly exchange charge with the solar wind (SW) ions, especially in the supersonic part of the wind, where they carry most of the plasma pressure. Here we present numerical…