Potrillo Volcanic Field
Science Adores a Vacuum
Solar wind and micrometeoroids constantly batter airless bodies like the Moon and asteroids, darkening their surfaces in ways that confuse remote sensing instruments. To settle the debate over which force drives that change, RIS4E scientists at Stony Brook University designed an eight-inch steel vacuum cube, tested against one of the brightest X-ray beams on Earth at Brookhaven National Laboratory, to simulate space weathering in controlled conditions.
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