Word: atmosphereless
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...They have been keeping track of signals from extremely sensitive devices left behind at the Apollo landing sites and capable of detecting positive ions, atoms or molecules carrying a positive electrical charge. On at least three occasions, the scientists say, the detectors registered activity that was unusual on the atmosphereless moon: clouds of gases were passing by. Analyzing the data, the scientists determined that the gases had the unmistakable characteristics of ionized water vapor...
...atmosphereless moon, optical telescopes can be used continuously; no clouds, air currents or air pollution can impede viewing. Were the giant, 200-in. optical telescope at Mt. Palomar to be duplicated on the lunar surface, for example, it could observe stars that are 10,000 times too faint for it to detect through the earth's atmosphere...
...Fred Singer suggests that the moon first evolved as a minor planet, independent of the earth and following its own orbit around the sun. About four billion years ago, he believes, its path carried it on a near-collision course with the earth, which at that time was an atmosphereless orb revolving once every five hours. Captured by terrestrial gravity, the moon was pulled into an elliptical orbit around the earth, passing as close as 10,000 miles away at perigee and swinging hundreds of thousands of miles out at apogee...
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