The moon is in the earth's atmosphere, according to a study



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  • Observations made by the SOHO satellite more than 20 years ago lead to a new discovery.
  • The Earth has a hydrogen envelope as part of its external atmosphere called geocorona.
  • The geocorone extends well beyond the moon, reveals a study.

We are more connected to the moon than we realized. It turns out that the outer part of the Earth's atmosphere extends considerably beyond the lunar orbit. In fact, this goes up to twice the distance of the moon.

This discovery is the product of observations from the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO), a satellite launched in 1995 to study the sun and operated by the European Space Agency (ESA) and NASA.

The actions taken by SOHO 20 years ago took a fresh look at a new study, which led to some remarkable conclusions. What the data showed is that the geocorona, a hydrogen envelope that envelops our planet, expands up to 630,000 km (391,464 miles) far from there. This distance is 50 times the diameter of the Earth.

Credit: ESA.

Geocorona from the land of the moon. An ultraviolet photo taken in 1972 with a camera operated by Apollo 16 astronauts on the moon.

Igor Baliukin The lead author of the study on the subject of the Institute of Space Research of Russia explained that "the Moon is flying in the atmosphere of the Earth".

Geocorone appears where the atmosphere of the planet comes into contact with outer space. It is essentially a cloud of hydrogen atoms. Between 1996 and 1998, SWAN, an instrument embedded on the satellite SOHO, could use its sensors to follow the signatures of hydrogen, thus locating the edges of the geocorone.

"Data archived many years ago can often be used for new science," said Bernhard Fleck, scientist for SOHO's ESA project. "This discovery highlights the value of the data collected over 20 years ago and the outstanding performance of SOHO."

Credit: ESA.

The extent of the geocorone of the Earth.

In addition to being transformative in understanding our own atmosphere, discovery can be useful for searching for planets containing water beyond our solar system. Detecting the presence of hydrogen in their outside atmospheres can mean the presence of water vapor near the surface.

Discover more SOHO achievements of more than 20 years in space:

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