Lunar atmospheric H₂ detections by the LAMP UV spectrograph on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter

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• 作者：S. Alan Stern ; Jason C. Cook ; Jean -Yves Chaufray ; Paul D. Feldman ; G. R ; all Gladstone ; Kurt D. Retherford
• 关键词：Atmospheres ; Composition ; Abundances ; Atmospheres ; Moon ; Spectroscopy ; Ultraviolet observations
• 刊名：Icarus
• 出版年：2013
• 出版时间：November-December, 2013
• 年：2013
• 卷：226
• 期：2
• 页码：1210-1213
• 全文大小：332 K

文摘

We report on the detection of H₂ as seen in our analysis of twilight observations of the lunar atmosphere observed by the LAMP instrument aboard NASA¡¯s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter. Using a large amount of data collected on the lunar atmosphere between September 2009 and March 2013, we have detected and identified, the presence of H₂ in the native lunar atmosphere, for the first time. We derive a surface density for H₂ of 1.2 ¡À 0.4 ¡Á 10³ cm^?3 at 120 K. This is about 10 times smaller than originally predicted, and several times smaller than previous upper limits from the Apollo era data.