Space weathering
Videos
Space weathering is the type of weathering that occurs to any object exposed to the harsh environment of outer space. Bodies without atmospheres take on many weathering processes:
An illustration of space weathering's different components.
TEM image of space weathered rim on a grain of lunar soil 10084
Aurora Space Shuttle EO
Sputtering
Videos
In physics, sputtering is a phenomenon in which microscopic particles of a solid material are ejected from its surface, after the material is itself bombarded by energetic particles of a plasma or gas
Space weathering
…collisions of galactic cosmic rays and solar cosmic rays, irradiation, implantation, and sputtering from solar wind particles, and bombardment by different sizes of meteorites and micrometeorites…
A commercial AJA Orion sputtering system at Cornell NanoScale Science and Technology Facility
Ion thruster operating on iodine (yellow) using a xenon (blue) hollow cathode. High-energy ions emitted from plasma thrusters sputter material off the surrounding test chamber, causing problems for ground testing of high-power thrusters.
A commercial sputtering system