The ratio of 40 Ar/ 36 Ar trapped within lunar grains, commonly known as the lunar antiquity indicator, is an important semi -empirical method for dating the time at which lunar samples were exposed to the solar wind. The behavior of the antiquity indicator is governed by the relative implantation fluxes of solar wind -derived 36 Ar ions and indigenously sourced lunar exospheric 40 Ar ions. Previous explanations for the behavior of the antiquity indicator have assumed constancy in both the solar wind ion precipitation and exospheric ion recycling fluxes; however, the presence of a lunar paleomagnetosphere likely invalidates these assumptions. Furthermore, most astrophysical models of stellar evolution suggest that the solar wind flux should have been significantly higher in the past, which would also affect the behavior of the antiquity indicator. Here, we use numerical simulations to explore the behavior of solar wind 36 Ar ions and lunar exospheric 40 Ar ions in the presence of lunar paleomagnetic fields of varying strengths. We find that paleomagnetic fields suppress the solar wind 36 Ar flux by up to an order -of -magnitude while slightly enhancing the recycling flux of lunar exospheric 40 Ar ions. We also find that at an epoch of similar to 2 Gya, the suppression of solar wind 36 Ar access to the lunar surface by a lunar paleomagnetosphere is - somewhat fortuitously - nearly equally balanced by the expected increase in the upstream solar wind flux. These counterbalancing effects suggest that the lunar paleomagnetosphere played a critical role in preserving the correlation between the antiquity indicator and the radioactive decay profile of indigenous lunar 40 K. Thus, a key implication of these findings is that the accuracy of the 40 Ar/ 36 Ar indicator for any lunar sample may be strongly influenced by the poorly constrained history of the lunar magnetic field.

Wave processes in dusty plasma near the surface of Mercury are discussed. The near-surface layers of Mercury's exosphere have a number of common features with those of the exosphere of the Moon, e.g., there are dust particles above the illuminated side of both cosmic bodies that become positively charged due to the photoelectric effect. Mercury has its own magnetosphere that protects the surface from particles of the solar wind. However, the solar wind can reach the surface of the planet near the magnetic poles. Therefore, dust particles of the same size get different charges depending on their localization above the Mercury's surface. A drift wave turbulence can appear in dusty plasma in the magnetic field near the Mercury's surface in the presence of gradient of electron concentration. The solar wind that streams at speeds of about 400 km/s relative to plasma near the surface of the planet can induce longitudinal electrostatic oscillations with frequencies determined by the electron plasma frequency. We analyze wave processes taking into account the difference in parameters at aphelion and perihelion of the Mercury's orbit, along with the fact whether the dust particles are located near the magnetic poles or far from them.

The possible effect is studied of the magnetic field of Earth's magnetotail and the magnetic field in the regions of magnetic anomalies of the Moon on the processes of formation of dusty plasma above the Moon. It is shown that due to the action of the magnetic field in Earth's magnetotail, transfer of charged dust is possible over long distances above Moon's surface. Accordingly, the dusty plasma above the surface of the Moon illuminated by the solar radiation can exist in the entire range of lunar latitudes. The transfer of dust grains over long distances due to the uncompensated magnetic component of Lorenz force is a new qualitative effect that is absent in the absence of magnetic field. The magnetic component of Lorenz force acting on the dust grain from the fields of magnetic anomalies is either lower or comparable to the similar force calculated for the magnetic fields of Earth's magnetotail. However, due to the substantial localization of magnetic anomalies, their effect on the dynamics of charged dust grains above the Moon's surface does not lead to new qualitative effects.

Sodium and, in a lesser way, potassium atomic components of surface-bounded exospheres are among the brightest elements that can be observed from the Earth in our Solar System. Both species have been intensively observed around Mercury, the Moon and the Galilean Moons. During the last decade, new observations have been obtained thanks to space missions carrying remote and in situ instrumentation that provide a completely original view of these species in the exospheres of Mercury and the Moon. They challenged our understanding and modelling of these exospheres and opened new directions of research by suggesting the need to better take into account the relationship between the surface-exosphere and the magnetosphere. In this paper, we first review the large set of observations of Mercury and the Moon Sodium and Potassium exospheres. In the second part, we list what it tells us on the sources and sinks of these exospheres focusing in particular on the role of their magnetospheres of these objects and then discuss, in a third section, how these observations help us to understand and identify the key drivers of these exospheres.

Volatiles and refractories represent the two end-members in the volatility range of species in any surface-bounded exosphere. Volatiles include elements that do not interact strongly with the surface, such as neon (detected on the Moon) and helium (detected both on the Moon and at Mercury), but also argon, a noble gas (detected on the Moon) that surprisingly adsorbs at the cold lunar nighttime surface. Refractories include species such as calcium, magnesium, iron, and aluminum, all of which have very strong bonds with the lunar surface and thus need energetic processes to be ejected into the exosphere. Here we focus on the properties of species that have been detected in the exospheres of inner Solar System bodies, specifically the Moon and Mercury, and how they provide important information to understand source and loss processes of these exospheres, as well as their dependence on variations in external drivers.

We develop an analytical model of the Alfven wings generated by the interaction between a moon's ionosphere and its sub-Alfvenic magnetospheric environment. Our approach takes into account a realistic representation of the ionospheric Pedersen conductance profile that typically reaches a local minimum above the moon's poles and maximizes along the bundle of magnetospheric field lines tangential to the surface. By solving the equation for the electrostatic potential, we obtain expressions for various quantities characterizing the interaction, such as the number flux and energy deposition of magnetospheric plasma onto the surface, the spatial distribution of currents within the Alfven wings and associated magnetic field perturbations, as well as the Poynting flux transmitted along the wings. Our major findings are: (a) Deflection of the magnetospheric plasma around the Alfven wings can reduce the number flux onto the surface by several orders of magnitude. However, the Alfvenic interaction alone does not alter the qualitative shape of the bullseye-like precipitation pattern formed without the plasma interaction. (b) Due to the deflection of the upstream plasma, the energy deposition onto the moon's exosphere achieves its minimum near the ramside apex and maximizes along the flanks of the interaction region. (c) Even when the ionospheric conductance profile is continuous, the currents along the Alfven wings exhibit several sharp jumps. These discontinuities generate spikes in the magnetic field that are still observable at large distances to the moon. (d) The magnitude and direction of the wing-aligned currents are determined by the slope of the ionospheric conductance profile.

Understanding the sources of lunar water is crucial for studying the history of lunar evolution, as well as the interaction of solar wind with the Moon and other airless bodies. Recent orbital spectral observations revealed that the solar wind is a significant exogenous driver of lunar surficial hydration. However, the solar wind is shielded over a period of 3-5 days per month as the Moon passes through the Earth's magnetosphere, during which a significant loss of hydration is expected. Here we report the temporal and spatial distribution of polar surficial OH/H2O abundance, using Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M-3) data, which covers the regions inside/outside the Earth's magnetosphere. The data shows that polar surficial OH/H2O abundance increases with latitude, and that the probability of polar surficial OH/H2O abundance remains at the same level when in the solar wind and in the magnetosphere by controlling latitude, composition, and lunar local time. This indicates that the OH/H2O abundance in the polar regions may be saturated, or supplemented from other possible sources, such as Earth wind (particles from the magnetosphere, distinct from the solar wind), which may compensate for thermal diffusion losses while the Moon lies within the Earth's magnetosphere. This work provides some clues for studies of planet-moon systems, whereby the planetary wind serves as a bridge connecting the planet with its moons.

In this chapter, we review the contribution of space missions to the determination of the elemental and isotopic composition of Earth, Moon and the terrestrial planets, with special emphasis on currently planned and future missions. We show how these missions are going to significantly contribute to, or sometimes revolutionise, our understanding of planetary evolution, from formation to the possible emergence of life. We start with the Earth, which is a unique habitable body with actual life, and that is strongly related to its atmosphere. The new wave of missions to the Moon is then reviewed, which are going to study its formation history, the structure and dynamics of its tenuous exosphere and the interaction of the Moon's surface and exosphere with the different sources of plasma and radiation of its environment, including the solar wind and the escaping Earth's upper atmosphere. Missions to study the noble gas atmospheres of the terrestrial planets, Venus and Mars, are then examined. These missions are expected to trace the evolutionary paths of these two noble gas atmospheres, with a special emphasis on understanding the effect of atmospheric escape on the fate of water. Future missions to these planets will be key to help us establishing a comparative view of the evolution of climates and habitability at Earth, Venus and Mars, one of the most important and challenging open questions of planetary science. Finally, as the detection and characterisation of exoplanets is currently revolutionising the scope of planetary science, we review the missions aiming to characterise the internal structure and the atmospheres of these exoplanets.

The temporal and spatial variability of the radiation environment around Ganymede has a direct impact on the moon's exosphere, which links Jupiter's magnetosphere with the satellite's icy surface. The dynamics of the entry and circulation inside Ganymede's magnetosphere of the Jovian energetic ions, as well as the morphology of their precipitation on the moon's surface, determine the variability of the sputtered-water release. For this reason, the so-called planetary space weather conditions around Ganymede can also have a long-term impact on the weathering history of the moon's surface. In this work, we simulate the Jovian energetic ion precipitation to Ganymede's surface for different relative configurations between the moon's magnetic field and Jupiter's plasma sheet using a single-particle Monte Carlo model driven by the electromagnetic fields from a global MHD model. In particular, we study three science cases characterized by conditions similar to those encountered during the NASA Galileo G2, G8, and G28 flybys of Ganymede (i.e., when the moon was above, inside, and below the center of Jupiter's plasma sheet). We discuss the differences between the various surface precipitation patterns and the implications in the water sputtering rate. The results of this preliminary analysis are relevant to ESA's JUICE mission and in particular to the planning and optimization of future observation strategies for studying Ganymede's environment.

Analyses of lunar samples suggest the Moon once possessed a dynamo from similar to 4.25 Ga until perhaps as recently as 1 Ga, with surface field strengths between similar to 5 and 100 mu T. While the exact timing, strength, and structure of these paleomagnetic fields are not precisely known, such relatively strong fields imply that the Moon also likely possessed a magnetosphere. Here, we present hybrid plasma simulations of the structure and morphology of the putative lunar paleo-magnetosphere for varying surface field strengths and orientations, using ambient solar wind conditions representative of the early Sun. The presence of the paleo-magnetosphere reduces total solar wind fluxes to the lunar surface overall yet, for a spin-aligned dynamo, increases the relative solar wind flux to the lunar polar regions. In turn, the paleo-magnetosphere may have altered the rate of volatile accretion to the Moon over its history.