TSU Mini-Moon Seminar Series No. 41(May 29, 2024) @ Google Meet

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★ May 29, 2024, 14:00 (UTC+8)
Speaker: Dr. Elias Roussos (Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research)
Title: Science through energetic charged particles at the Earth’s moon (and beyond)


VIDEO


Dr. Elias Roussos

Bio(Dr. Elias Roussos)
Elias Roussos, born in Athens, Greece, is a senior researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research (MPS)in Germany, engaged in a broad range of investigations relevant to magnetospheric, planetary sciences and heliophysics. He studied physics and space science at the University of Athens (Greece) and the International Space University (Strasbourg, France), before completing his doctoral studies at the Technical University of Braunschweig, in Germany, in collaboration with MPS. Since 2005, he has authored or co-authored a large number of articles or book chapters on planetary radiation belts, planet/moon-plasma interactions, planetary rings and galactic cosmic rays. He has gained rich experience with several Cassini and Galileo data sets and he is a Co-I on several experiments on ESA’s JUICE and NASA’s Europa Clipper mission. He is also the acting science operations manager for the Particle Environment Package (PEP)  instrument suite on JUICE. He is the recipient of two prestigious scientific awards by the Max Planck Society and the European Geophysical Union, as well as an excellence in refereeing award by AGU. Besides his ongoing involvement on the JUICE project, he also participates on several mission or instrument studies targeting different regions of our solar system, such as the terrestrial magnetosphere, Earth’s moon and Jupiter’s radiation belts.

Abstract

The plasma interaction of Earth’s moon with the solar wind or the terrestrial magnetosphere gives rise to a plethora of phenomena, some specific to the physics of the moon itself, and pertaining to fundamental processes, such as the expansion of a magnetized plasma in a vacuum. But when it comes to energetic particles, the moon is typically treated as a simple particle absorber, with the interest largely shifted into the area of space weather, radiation exposure and protection. In reality, the interaction of the moon with high energy particles touches upon numerous scientific topics: from exosphere formation and surface charging, to probing subsurface chemistry and studying solar system history and evolution. In addition, the detail and precision to which we can study such an interaction, can provide insights and ideas on how to understand and prepare the observation of outer planet moons, that are constantly irradiated by high fluxes of energetic particles within the magnetosphere environments that they move. This talk will review the different science investigations that can be achieved at the moon with high energy particle simulation, list the relevant open questions and, where appropriate, describe links with the scientific exploration of outer planet moons.