Quick search Find article
Quick search
Find article

Chandra Observations of the "Dark" Moon and Geocoronal Solar Wind Charge Transfer

FREE

B. J. Wargelin1, M. Markevitch1,2, M. Juda1, V. Kharchenko1, R. Edgar1 and A. Dalgarno1

Show affiliations


We have analyzed data from two sets of calibration observations of the Moon made by the Chandra X-Ray Observatory. In addition to obtaining a spectrum of the bright side that shows several distinct fluorescence lines, we also clearly detect time-variable soft X-ray emission, primarily O VII Kα and O VIII Lyα, when viewing the optically dark side. The apparent dark-side brightness varied in time by at least an order of magnitude, up to ~2 × 10-6 photons s-1 arcmin-2 cm-2 between 500 and 900 eV, which is comparable to the typical img1.gif keV-band background emission measured in the ROSAT All-Sky Survey. The spectrum is also very similar to background spectra recorded by Chandra in low- or moderate-brightness regions of the sky. Over a decade ago, ROSAT also detected soft X-rays from the dark side of the Moon, which were tentatively ascribed to continuum emission from energetic solar wind electrons impacting the lunar surface. The Chandra observations, however, with their better spectral resolution, combined with contemporaneous measurements of solar wind parameters, strongly favor charge transfer between highly charged solar wind ions and neutral hydrogen in the Earth's geocorona as the mechanism for this emission. We present a theoretical model of geocoronal emission and show that predicted spectra and intensities match the Chandra observations very well. We also model the closely related process of heliospheric charge transfer and estimate that the total charge transfer flux observed from Earth amounts to a significant fraction of the soft X-ray background, particularly in the ROSAT img1.gif keV band.


Subject headings

atomic processes; Moon; solar wind; X-rays: diffuse background; X-rays: general


Dates

Issue 1 (2004 May 20)

Received 2003 December 19, accepted for publication 2004 February 3



  1. Chandra Observations of the "Dark" Moon and Geocoronal Solar Wind Charge Transfer

    B. J. Wargelin et al. 2004 ApJ 607 596

  2. Observation of Shubnikov–de Haas oscillations in the quasi-one-dimensional Bechgaard salt (TMTSF)2FSO3

    O H Chung et al 2003 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 15 7297

  3. Magnetic domains in Ni–Mn–Ga martensitic thin films

    V A Chernenko et al 2005 J. Phys.: Condens. Matter 17 5215

  4. High-dimensional lattice gases

    J R Heringa et al 2000 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 33 2929

  5. Classical electrodynamics and the quantum nature of light

    Manoelito M de Souza 1997 J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 30 6565

  6. Chandra Imaging of the X-Ray Nebula Powered by Pulsar B1509–58

    B. M. Gaensler et al. 2002 ApJ 569 878

  7. Electron impact dissociation cross sections for C2F6

    D W Flaherty et al 2006 J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys. 39 4393

  8. Shear-flow transition: the basin boundary

    Norman R Lebovitz 2009 Nonlinearity 22 2645

  9. Spitzer 24 μm Images of Planetary Nebulae

    You-Hua Chu et al. 2009 The Astronomical Journal 138 691

  10. Spin-2 field theory in curved spacetime in the Fierz representation

    M Novello and R P Neves 2002 Class. Quantum Grav. 19 5335

View by subject




Export








Please login to access our web services, or create an account if you don't yet have one.

You must have cookies enabled in your web browser to be able to login.

Username
Password

Forgotten your password? Get a new one here.