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Closeup of moon dust under the microscope. The glassy coating is melted rock from micrometeorite impacts. Credit: Larry Taylor

We were incredibly grateful he shared such a precious thing. It was one of many highlights at the conference I’m attending at the Laboratory for Atmospheric and Space Physics (LASP) at the University of Colorado in Boulder this weekend.

Dr. Horanyi researches lunar dust liberated by the impact of tiny meteorites called micrometeoroids. These burn up in Earth’s atmosphere, but on the airless moon, 5 tons worth a day strike the surface unimpeded, grinding away at the lunar rocks like a dog gnawing a bone.

The western horizon photographed by Surveyor 6 in November 1967 reveals the lingering glow of moon dust levitating above the surface. Credit: NASA

Because of its long history of impact from the earliest times to this day, the moon’s soil is a jumble of shattered rocks, melted bits of rock and billions of tiny, sharp-edge dust particles that resemble finely shattered glass. Horanyi has done experiments – one involving “kicking” a pizza pan coated with dust in a controlled setting -  to show that solar ultraviolet light bathing the moon’s surface causes dust particles to levitate electrostatically.

If you’ve ever had plastic wrap or styrofoam peanuts jump into your hands, you’re familiar with electrostatic forces. Apollo astronauts reported glowing dust clouds backlit by the rising (or setting) sun near the horizon during their forays across the lunar landscape. Horanyi recreated these on a smaller scale.

LASP investigator and researcher Dr. Milhaly Horanyi and the dust particle accelerator he created to measure the properties of dust under conditions similar to what his lunar experiment (see below) will sample. Photo: Bob King

Horanyi is the principal investigator for the Lunar Dust Experiment (LDEX) that will be flown to the moon in 2013 aboard the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE). He hopes to examine dust shot out by meteoroid impacts as well as get a better handle on what causes those peculiar dust clouds seen by the astronauts and photographed by several spacecraft. You can learn more about levitating lunar dust in this earlier blog.

I could go on and on but have to get moving to attend the last lectures this morning. I will share more tomorrow. One thing I can tell you – I have a greater respect and appreciation for dust thanks to Mihaly’s insights. Seeing the lunar variety up close was levitation for the soul.