The Sun's solar wind causes oxygen from the Earth's atmosphere to travel across space and eventually landing on the surface of the moon for five days each month.
The new study suggests that during a relatively brief window each month, oxygen ions from the Earth's atmosphere are finding its way to the lunar surface, Science Magazine reported.
Scientists had stated that solar wind does bombard Earth's magnetosphere with the harmful rays everyday, it is only but a part of the whole picture.
Majority of the energy of these blasts gets deflected back into space due to the planet's magnetic field, but it has been recently discovered that it still manages to dislodge a small percentage of oxygen ions from Earth's gravitational pull, which has been discovered to be the case ever since the formation of the planet's atmosphere.
The new study revealed that not only it has been going on for as long as scientists could accurately predict, but it has also provided data that for five days each month, the moon has been on the receiving end of these bombardments.
The oxygen ions are being spilled into deep space everyday, and during the brief window each month when the moon passes through the tear drop shape area opposite the Sun with Earth in between the cosmic objects wherein the highly charged particles gets a break from the solar wind's push. It is during this time that the ions lose some its momentum and end up on the lunar surface, according to The Verge.
Kentaro Terada, a cosmochemist at the Osaka University in Japan, stated that results suggest that scientists may find samples of the Earth's atmosphere from billions of years ago to be preserved well within the lunar surface today, as the team detailed in their study.
The world may wait a little longer to confirm pre-historic particles from Earth's atmosphere are indeed embedded in the lunar surface. The data still downplays any suggestions that the moon may have pockets of breathable air, as the results show that only a small percentage of oxygen are making its way onto the lunar surface. However, it does shed a new light on the subject and may pave the way for further studies into the Earth's cosmic companion.