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Earth’s atmosphere may help support human life on the moon

Illustration of Earth, the sun, and the moon, with atmospheric particles flying about them to illustrate how lunar soil ended up with particles from Earth.
FLY ME TO THE MOON: Solar wind (yellow-orange trails) strips ions from Earth’s upper atmosphere (sky-blue trails). Some of these particles travel along Earth’s magnetic field lines (solid white curves) and settle on the Moon’s surface. This process may leave lunar soil with a record of Earth’s atmosphere. (University of Rochester illustration / Shubhonkar Paramanick)

The moon’s surface may be more than just a dusty, barren landscape. Over billions of years, tiny particles from Earth’s atmosphere have landed in the lunar soil, creating a possible source of life-sustaining substances for future astronauts. But scientists have only recently begun to understand how these particles make the long journey from Earth to the moon and how long the process has been taking place.

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