A model for the steady interaction of the solar wind with the Moon

The steady state interaction of the solar wind with the Moon is modeled as a uniform, magnetized, quasi-neutral, collisionless, hypersonic, and hyper-Alfvénic flow of an electronproton plasma past a perfectly ion absorbing, non-magnetized sphere. For the temperature of the electronsT much less than that of the ionsT _i , steady state equations are derived self-consistently from the Vlasov and Maxwell equations by taking advantage of the fact that the ion gyration ratio is small compared to the radius of the Moon, by employing an ordering which requires different scale lengths along the magnetic fieldB and center of mass velocity, and by expanding in a small parameter ? that measures the smallness of ?B terms compared to a dominant term retained. A partial numerical solution is presented and discussed for the limit in which ? is much less than β=(ion pressure/magnetic pressure). In addition, a simple technique is presented whereby the steady state equations can be approximately extended to cases in whichT?T _i for arbitrary ?/β.