A while back I put a photo like this up which attempts to reproduce a scene from the Space: 1999 episode , The Bringers of Wonder.
The photo was generally well received, although someone questioned whether or not you see smoke on the Moon. I answered I didn't really know as I'm not a scientist, and just wanted to add some dynamism to the picture. I resisted the temptation to say it was actually taken in my garage on Earth!
I've used smoke several times on 'Lunar surface' shots to hopefully give some added realism to my photos, however, I was intrigued myself, and did a little checking amid the usual bewildering scientific gobbledegook.
I found that contrary to the accepted belief, it's been discovered that our Moon does have very slight atmosphere, called a 'surface boundary exosphere', and comparable to the outer most fringes of Earth's, but containing minute amounts of unusual gases, including sodium and potassium.
How smoke might react in that environment I still don't know, so for the foreseeable future I'll just have to rely on the more familiar atmospheric effects in my garage!
Exhaust gases from rocket engines would kick up some lunar dust which could catch sunlight and look like smoke anyway. The lunar atmosphere is probably too thin to help blow stuff around as well. Good photos.
ReplyDeleteCheers Kev. If anyone would know my money was on you. I imagine then, as long as particles reflect light we'd see an effect.
DeleteThanks, yep, I think we would.
ReplyDeleteWell.
ReplyDeleteSmoke can exist on the moon, but, like dust, does not hang above the ground for long, as there is insufficient atmosphere to suspend the particles. These are merely subject to gravity, which pulls them down.
Heat would not keep the smoke around as, again, without atmosphere, there can be no convection currents (or indeed fire, without Oxygen).
However, exhaust 'smoke' would stay around as long as the engines are running, and smoke from an explosion may take a while to settle in the moons low gravity, having been spread further up and out, thus maybe staying visible for as long as on Earth.
Check the dust kicked up by the wheels in the shots of the Lunar Rover driving on the moon. It flies out in a parabola, then falls back quickly. It does not drift about above the surface, as fine dust would on Earth.
Another helpful answer there,Mish. Like you mentioned I do recall seeing the dust coming up from the Lunar Rover.
DeleteI think it's fair to conclude that I'm safe to continue using a smoke effect on my Moon surface pics,which could easily be either dust or smoke particles.
Absolutely !
ReplyDeleteOh, and of course Artisic Licence will always enable smoke to be around on the Moon.
ReplyDelete