Properties and Harmfulness of Lunar Dust: A Review
详细信息
- 责任者：Zhang Sensen (Lunar and Planetary Science Research Center ; Institute of Geochemistry ; CAS ; Guiyang 550002 ; China) ; Wang Shijie
- 刊名：Earth Science
- 出版年：2013
- 卷期：38(2)
- 关键词：月球 ; Moon ; 尘埃 ; dust
- 页码：p.339-350
- 图表：illus., 3 tables, 70 refs.
- 分类号：0100
- issnNo：ISSN1000-2383
- isbnNo：CN42-1233/P
摘要
Lunar dust is the small particle widely distributed on the lunar surface, of which sizes range from 30 nm to 20 μm with the median diameter of 100-300 nm and more than 95% are less than 2 μm. The grains have complex shapes and usually show glass beads, vesicular texture, and angular shards. High contents of agglutinate glass and npFe0 are the remarkable properties in mineral composition. The glass content is usually more than 50 vol%, and it can reach 80% to 90% in <2.5 μm part. Lunar dust is similar to lunar soil in elemental compositions, but it also shows different contents of SiO2 in different areas. The composition and geometrical characteristics of lunar dust lead to special electromagnetic properties and biological toxicity. These properties might cause the lunar dust adhered to spacecraft and inhaled by astronauts easily, and then damage the spacecraft and threaten the health of astronauts. So, it is necessary to study lunar dust further to facilitate lunar surface exploration, which also can better the understanding of the evolution of lunar surface materials and lunar atmosphere due to the fact that lunar dust has been formed during a long time space weathering and conserves important information of space weathering history in the composition and microstructure of lunar dust grain. Currently, the properties of lunar dust grains in micro-morphology and chemical composition, electromagnetic properties and spectral characteristics, the feature and origin of npFe0 are still not clear, which challenges the understanding of the mechanism of lunar dust’s adhesion, biological toxicity and space weathering. To meet the needs of lunar science and lunar exploration, studying the properties of lunar soil grains and process of space weathering by simulated experiments using lunar dust stimulants as a candidate might be an important trend in the coming decades.