Lunar Wind and Water The solar wind is a stream of charged
particles ejected from the upper atmosphere of the Sun. It
mostly consists of electrons and protons with energies usually
between 1.5 and 10 keV. The stream of particles varies in
temperature and speed over time. These particles can escape the
Sun's gravity because of their high kinetic energy and the high
temperature of the corona. Three years ago University of
Tennessee, Knoxville, researchers helped to discover water on
the surface of the moon. Now, they are piecing together the
origin of that water: solar wind. A new study published in this
month’s Nature Geoscience confirms solar wind as a source for
water embedded in the lunar surface. Lunar water is water that
is present on the Moon. Liquid water cannot persist at the
Moon's surface, and water vapor is quickly decomposed by
sunlight and lost to outer space. Water, and the chemically
related hydroxyl group, can also exist in forms chemically bound
to lunar minerals (rather than as free water), a