The Moon Passes In and Out of Earth's Magnetosphere

Earth's magnetosphere is a bubble that protects us from harmful solar radiation and space weather, but the Moon does not always share that same protection. As it orbits Earth, the Moon passes in and out of the magnetosphere, becoming fully exposed to the solar wind and other space weather whenever it is outside of the magnetosphere. This visualization follows the Moon for 10 days, spanning the time just before it enters the magnetosphere to just after it leaves it. It starts with a close-up of the Moon and then zooms out to show the Moon's orbit around Earth.

The plane of the Milky Way appears in the background near the beginning. Two nearby dwarf galaxies, the Large Magellanic Cloud and Small Magellanic Cloud, appear in the background about halfway through, and the Sun appears in the background near the end.