Related papers: A new view on the solar wind interaction with the …
Mini-magnetospheres are small ion-scale structures that are well-suited to studying kinetic-scale physics of collisionless space plasmas. Such ion-scale magnetospheres can be found on local regions of the Moon, associated with the lunar…
The first three quarters of this paper consists of a pedagogical review of neutrino oscillations, including vacuum oscillations, constant density matter oscillations and variable density matter oscillations. We then address the question of…
On 2019 May 6, the Lunar Lander Neutron & Dosimetry (LND) Experiment on board the Chang'E-4 on the far-side of the Moon detected its first small solar energetic particle (SEP) event with proton energies up to 21MeV. Combined proton energy…
The solar wind affects the plasma environment around all solar system bodies. A strong solar wind dynamic pressure pushes plasma boundaries closer to these objects. For small objects kinetic effects on scales smaller than an ion gyroradius…
The amount and distribution of water on the lunar surface are related to the input and production of water by solar wind and meteoroid bombardment, balanced by photodestruction and mobility across the surface. Using the Stratospheric…
The physical processes in the solar corona that shape the solar wind remain an active research topic. Modeling efforts have shown that energy and plasma exchanges near the transition region plays a crucial role in modulating solar wind…
It has been posited that lunar eclipse observations may help predict the in-transit signature of Earth-like extrasolar planets. However, a comparative analysis of the two phenomena addressing in detail the transport of stellar light through…
The Lunar Orbital Platform-Gateway (LOP-Gateway, or simply Gateway) is a crewed platform that will be assembled and operated in the vicinity of the Moon by NASA and international partner organizations, including ESA, starting from the…
The lunar surface is a compelling location for large, distributed optical facilities, with significant advantages over orbital facilities for high spatial resolution astrophysics. The serious development of mission concepts is timely…
The aim of this work is to investigate the applications of the neutral atom imaging to the environments of the Earth, Mars and Mercury. This innovative technique permits the study of energetic plasma by means of analysing the result of the…
The lunar geological record has much to tell us about the earliest history of the Solar System, the origin and evolution of the Earth-Moon system, the geological evolution of rocky planets, and the near-Earth cosmic environment throughout…
We study the interaction between Venus and the solar wind using a global three-dimensional self-consistent quasi-neutral hybrid (QNH) model. The model treats ions (H+, O+) as particles and electrons as a massless charge neutralising fluid.…
Proton auroras are widely observed on the dayside of Mars, identified as a significant intensity enhancement in the hydrogen Lyman alpha (121.6 nm) emission between 110 - 150 km altitudes. Solar wind protons penetrating as energetic neutral…
The lunar geological record is expected to contain a rich record of the galactic environment of the Solar System, including records of nearby (i.e. less than a few tens of parsecs) supernova explosions. This record will be composed of two…
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…
We address the thermal history of the Earth after the Moon-forming impact, taking tidal heating and thermal blanketing by the atmosphere into account. The atmosphere sets an upper bound of ~100 W/m^2 on how quickly the Earth can cool. The…
By mid-19th century, astronomers strongly suspected that the Moon was largely dry and airless, based on the absence of any observable weather. In 1892, William H. Pickering made a series of careful occultation measurements that allowed him…
Understanding the interplay between micrometeoroid impacts and solar wind irradiation is crucial for interpreting lunar surface evolution. Using reactive molecular dynamics simulations and surface binding energy (SBE) analyses, this study…
(abridged) The Sun's magnetic activity has steadily declined during its main-sequence life. While the solar photospheric luminosity was about 30% lower 4.6 Gyr ago when the Sun arrived on the main sequence compared to present-day levels,…
The planet Mercury possesses a small but highly dynamic magnetosphere in which the role and dynamics of electrons are still largely unknown. We aim at modeling the global dynamics of solar wind electrons impinging on Mercury's…