Submitted by fixingshitiswhatido t3_10zvsqj in askscience
So, The moon has an atmosphere nothing like the one on earth obviously, but a thin layer of gases that are “attached” to the moon through gravity barring any space weather, impacts and the like. My question is with the extreme temperature changes between the light and dark side of the moon would it not generate wind? I’m not talking about let’s build a windmill wind more something detectable with modern instruments, even theoretically. Or is the density/pressure just too low for the effect to take place?
DoctorRisen t1_j89op2k wrote
I don’t believe there is a high enough density of molecules in the “air” on the moon to produce the same thing we call wind on earth. Sure, they’re going to move around a bit, but they’re unlikely to collide with each other often enough to create a detectable trend of common movement, aka wind.