Space’s inhospitality for life is well known, with its freezing temperatures, lack of oxygen and unimaginable pressures. But the extraterrestrial environment is even harsher then first thought - for the Sun spews such violent radiation that it is capable of creating “sunburn” on the moon’s surface, a NASA study has shown. Everything in the solar system is constantly being blasted by the Sun’s deadly radiation.
Fortunately for life on Earth, our planet’s magnetic field shelters the planet's surface from this brutal cosmic energy.
Sometimes you put on sunscreen and you miss, like, a tiny little bit
Dr Andrew Poppe
However, this magnetic field is not powerful enough to extend this shield to the moon.
Our celestial satellite’s surface is consequently exposed to the brute force of solar wind particles.
New data collected by the ARTEMIS mission suggest that a combination of solar wind and the moon's magnetic field are in fact responsible for the distinctive patterns of dark and light scars, which have pulled astronomers over the ages.
READ MORE: NASA photo shows DEEPEST view into universe EVER
Moon mystery: NASA has solved the riddles of the lunar swirls (Image: Getty/NASA)
Moon mystery: Solar winds collide with Earth's magnetic field (Image: National Geophysical Data Centre)
NASA's ARTEMIS mission — which stands for Acceleration, Reconnection, Turbulence and Electrodynamics, centres around two satellites orbiting the moon.
One such example space
