With the discovery of significant ice deposits at the moon's poles by NASA's Lunar CRater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) missions, and the discovery of a thin scattering of water molecules in the lunar soil by the Chandrayaan X-ray Observatory, another fascinating possibility has captured researchers' interest. But which of these sources and processes are important on the moon? We still don't know. These include high energy photons and solar wind particles knocking atoms from the lunar surface, chemical reactions between the solar wind and lunar surface material, evaporation of surface material, material released from the impacts of comets and meteoroids, and out-gassing from the moon's interior. We think that there are several sources for gases in the moon's atmosphere.
![little man atmosphere little man atmosphere](https://images.rapgenius.com/e627b658b8578a673a5452e384bc0110.300x300x1.jpg)
Still, we only have a partial list of what makes up the lunar atmosphere. From here on Earth, researchers using special telescopes that block light from the moon's surface have been able to make images of the glow from sodium and potassium atoms in the moon's atmosphere as they are energized by the sun. It detected small amounts of a number of atoms and molecules including helium, argon, and possibly neon, ammonia, methane and carbon dioxide. The Apollo 17 mission deployed an instrument called the Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE) on the moon's surface. What is the moon's atmosphere made of? We have some clues. In fact, the density of the atmosphere at the moon's surface is comparable to the density of the outermost fringes of Earth's atmosphere where the International Space Station orbits. That still sounds like a lot, but it is what we consider to be a very good vacuum on Earth. At sea level on Earth, we breathe in an atmosphere where each cubic centimeter contains 10,000,000,000,000,000,000 molecules by comparison the lunar atmosphere has less than 1,000,000 molecules in the same volume. It's an infinitesimal amount of air when compared to Earth's atmosphere. Just as the discovery of water on the moon transformed our textbook knowledge of Earth's nearest celestial neighbor, recent studies confirm that our moon does indeed have an atmosphere consisting of some unusual gases, including sodium and potassium, which are not found in the atmospheres of Earth, Mars or Venus.
![little man atmosphere little man atmosphere](https://c8.alamy.com/comp/D1G9NA/summit-ridge-of-skiddaw-little-man-fell-keswick-lake-district-national-D1G9NA.jpg)
Until recently, most everyone accepted the conventional wisdom that the moon has virtually no atmosphere. The Lunar Atmospheric Composition Experiment (LACE) deployment during the Apollo 17 mission.