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music throughout

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Narrator: : To every astronaut or spacecraft, the Sun is a damaging source of radiation.

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All objects traveling through space must contend with this hazard, including planets. Even the moon has the scars

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to prove it. New NASA research suggests that some of the coloration

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we see on the moon could be a form of sunburn.

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Andrew Poppe: The leading hypothesis is that the magnetic fields are blocking

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some portion of the solar wind from reaching the surface

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Narrator: The solar wind is the Sun’s continuous outflow of particles and radiation that fills the inner solar system. Earth’s magnetic field provides a strong,

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global shield against it. However, the magnetic field on the moon is much weaker,

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and it forms only small, localized bubbles of protection. In these spots,

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the Sun’s particles can be reflected back into the solar wind or funneled to nearby regions.

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The shielded areas under the magnetic field form pale swirls.

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The bordering parts become darker. The contrast is so prominent,

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we can see it from Earth.

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Poppe: Those are regions acting as this magnetic sunscreen. You know, sometimes you put on sunscreen

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and you miss a tiny little bit, and then you have are really bright red spot on your skin where you missed it.

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That's in some ways the analogy for the region of the moon that is extra exposed.

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Narrator: Unfortunately, the moon’s patches of magnetic field are not

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robust enough to completely protect human explorers from the Sun’s radiation,

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but further study of lunar magnetic fields could lay the groundwork for

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future innovations. Poppe: It gives a test case for what if we got a strong enough magnetic field that perhaps

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we could produce artificially? That’s a question that remains to be answered,

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but I think that crustal magnetic fields on the moon and lunar swirls kind of provide a hint in that direction, that we might be able to learn something about.

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spacecraft beeping

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spacecraft beeping