Monday, March 23, 2009

Magnetic Field


Sooo to continue to ramble on more about myself, I thought you should know about my magnetic field!


I have an external magnetic field, it is very weak in comparison to that of the Earth. Other major differences are that the I do not currently have a diploar magnetic field (as would be generated by a geodynamo in its core) and the varying magnetization that is present is almost entirely crustal in origin.


Roughly once every Lunar orbit, I pass through Earth's magnetotail for approximately 6 days. Interaction with the plasma sheet cause my surface to become negatively charged. On my dayside this effect is counteracted to a degree by sunlight: ultraviolet photons knock electrons back off the surface, keeping the build-up of charge at relatively low levels. But on the nightside electrons accumulate and surface voltages can climb to hundreds or thousands of volts. There's growing evidence that fine particles of moondust might actually float, ejected from the lunar surface by electrostatic repulsion. This could create a temporary nighttime "atmosphere" of dust. The moondust atmosphere might also 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.

Although this may look to be confusion upon first glance, I found this really coold website from NASA that explains about my magnetic field quite a bit better with visuals:


Please visit this website, as I want you to be sure you understand about my magnetic field!-