Lunar horizon glow

But others with an amorphous reddish or whitish glows or even as dusky hazy regions that change shape or disappear over seconds or minutes, are thought to be because of sunlight reflecting from suspended lunar dust.

[6] The glow is also believed to appear in the star tracker data from the Clementine mission, although it would be masked by coronal and zodiacal light.

It looked for dust kicked up by small meteoroids hitting the Moon's surface, and recorded the speed, energy, and direction of tiny particles.

LEAM saw a large increase in the number of particles every morning, coming from the east or west and slower than speeds expected for lunar ejecta.

The experiment's temperature increased to near 100 degrees Celsius a few hours after each lunar sunrise, so the unit had to be turned off temporarily to prevent overheating.

It is thought that this is a result of electrically charged moondust sticking to LEAM, darkening its surface so the experiment package absorbed rather than reflected sunlight.

Scientists were unable to make a definite explanation of the problem, as LEAM operated only briefly before the Apollo program ended.

During the experiment, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was positioned in a way that it shadowed the Sun by the Moon and was looking back across space to observe material.