New findings on lunar atmosphere

[Waspie_Dwarf]

New findings expand Apollo observations of lunar atmosphere

In December 1972 the astronauts of Apollo 17-the last manned mission to the moon-deployed the Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE), a spectrometer designed to measure and characterize the thin lunar atmosphere. Forty years later, Stern et al. built upon those initial measurements, providing the first remotely-sensed measurement of the Moon's gaseous environment from lunar orbit. Using the Lyman Alpha Mapping Project's (LAMP's) far ultraviolet spectrograph aboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the authors determined the atmospheric concentration of helium.

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