Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter spectrometer detects helium in Moon's atmosphere
Wednesday, August 15, 2012 - 14:30
in Astronomy & Space
(Phys.org) -- Scientists using the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) aboard NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter have made the first spectroscopic observations of the noble gas helium in the tenuous atmosphere surrounding the Moon. These remote-sensing observations complement in-situ measurements taken in 1972 by the Lunar Atmosphere Composition Experiment (LACE) deployed by Apollo 17.