Sand from the Moon's Far Side Reveals Earth's Magnetic Field Only Shields the Near Side
China's Chang'e-6 mission brought back 1.935 grams of sand from the Moon's far side, and it turned out to carry solar wind particles buried deeper than in near-side samples. Earth's magnetic field, it seems, was slowing the wind from 400 km/s to 200 km/s before it ever reached the near side. SORABUMI explains why the same Moon has two very different sunburn histories.