Recently it was discovered that the Moon also have magnetic properties. Data obtained with robotic probes, told the researchers that the solar wind flows around the moon and interacts with it completely wrong, as with Land, because she, unlike our planet, does not have its own magnetic field. But it absolutely will not stop...

Around the Earth, the solar wind forms the magnetosphere - cavity in the form of a huge extended drops within which manifests itself geomagnetic field. The head part is always facing the Sun, where accumulates solar wind, the distance to its borders 10-12 radii of the Earth, that is about 70 thousand kilometers. On the night side of the Earth in the antisolar direction stretches more than 200 of the earth radii long tail of the magnetosphere, its length more than one million kilometers. And this magnetosphere with the Earth orbiting, in the sense of the Land and protecting the planet from harmful short-wavelength radiation.

But it's all magnetic shell of the Earth. And what is the situation with the satellite of the planet? Reliable experimental information about the magnetic field of the moon for the first time were obtained by Russian scientists from the Institute of terrestrial magnetism, ionosphere and radio wave propagation of the Russian Academy of Sciences, when in 1959 launched the first successful flight of the spacecraft from the Earth to the moon. This should be a special talk, because this space mission was first fitted with scientific instruments that telemetry transmitted scientific data in the PMU during the flight from Earth to the moon, for the fate of the mission was short - fly to the moon and breaking into a hard landing...

September 12, 1959, was the start of a rocket East-L, which brought a trajectory of a flight to the moon automatic mezhplanetnoi station (AMS) "Luna-2". AMC did not have its own propulsion and just crashed on September 14, 1959, for the first time in the world reaching the surface of the moon around the Sea of Clarity craters near Aristil, Archimedes and Autolycus. On the moon was delivered pennant with the image of the emblem of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics! A duplicate copy of the pennant N. S. Khrushchev presented as a souvenir of the American President, Mr. Eisenhower during the trip in the USA.

From the point of view of scientific achievements this was the first successful experiment. On Luna-2 was established scientific equipment: scintillation counters, Geiger counters, magnetometers, and detectors micrometeorites. For the magnetometers were responsible employee IZMIRAN, head of laboratory n dolginov - specialist magnetism planets. Telemetry signals of the devices were passed successfully, however, signals magnetometers not shown the values of the magnetic field of the moon! Measurement of the magnetism of the moon was conducted, and it was necessary to have confidence in their utensils, outstanding courage to Express their point of view, as did n dolginov. He said that the moon doesn't have its own magnetic field of a dipole configuration! The results were published in Russian scientific press. So happened that the first opening that defined the moon as nonmagnetic space body!

Years have passed since the first steps into space. Now the space mission of the multiple and diverse, including measurement of magnetic fields in the solar wind and the magnetosphere, on asteroids and other planets. And now you can explore and discover a much more subtle effects and interactions.

And recently it turned out that not having its own magnetic field Moon nevertheless affect the magnetic field in the solar wind, and these changes are revealed in the tens of thousands of miles away from the lunar surface. This is due to wrap the moon continuous flow of plasma coming from the Sun, which is very variable, its parameters quickly vary. Changing the speed and density of particles in the incident plasma, and the interplanetary magnetic field carried by the solar wind, which varies from units to tens of nTl.

But why is this all happening, because the moon doesn't have magnetosphere due to the lack of own magnetic field? Here's the thing: the flow of the solar wind plasma freely reaches the surface of the satellite on the daylight side of the moon. But he, nevertheless, is the interplanetary magnetic field from the Sun and is conductive environment, the structure and behavior of which around of the moon was much harder than expected by the NASA researchers, as reported in a recent press release.

Even at distances of about 10 thousand kilometers above the moon's surface are registered plasma flows of ions and electrons, creating turbulence perturbation in the oncoming flow of the solar wind. Change the parameters of plasma long before the moon's surface. These effects of turbulence in the solar wind before the obstacles identified in the data of various space vehicles: American probe Lunar Prospector, Japanese satellite Kaguya (SELENE), Chinese Chang e-2, the Indian Chandrayaan-1.

Space probe ARTEMIS, in addition to the changes to the density and energy of electrons and ions, has registered the presence of electromagnetic and electrostatic waves on an even more considerable distance from the moon in the solar wind flow. This area resembles the zone of compression plasma flow around obstacles, the so-called "foreshock". This phenomenon occurs before the parent shock wave in the earth's magnetosphere. Since the Moon, as mentioned above, has no magnetosphere, this phenomenon probably should be attributed to the peculiarities of the flow of plasma obstacles.

Computer simulation of plasma processes showed that directly from the lunar surface under the action of solar radiation in clash of the plasma flow arise variable electric field. It turned out that they can accelerate electrons released from the electron shells of atoms ultraviolet rays of the Sun. Streams of ions are formed from the solar wind protons and feels the opposite reflection under the influence of weak magnetic fields of residual magnetization, which remained in surface rocks Earth satellite in some regions of the lunar surface. These streams of ions are reflected back into space and remind jet fountains.

Electromagnetic fields of residual magnetization, manifested at distances of only a few meters from the surface, stimulate turbulent disturbances in the solar wind thousands of miles away from the moon. Such phenomena may occur in the vicinity of other Solar system bodies that do not have a global magnetic field. The solar wind flow around such obstacles revealed many unexpected plasma effects that require further research.