We can't really sing "Dust in the Wind" for the moon, since there's no wind on the celestial body. But, at least now we know that the shiny ball that glows in the night sky also has clouds.

Scientists have made another discovery about the moon this week. They learned from data obtained by NASA's Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) that the moon has a lopsided cloud all thanks to the impact of certain cosmic articles from space to the celestial body.

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The dust particles of the moon are being raised by the impacts made by cosmic particles, forming a mist that may resemble clouds at a quick instance since the dust particles land the lunar surfaces within a couple of minutes, as per USA Today.

Though the phenomenon is very interesting, scientists noted that the dust clouds will eventually fill in moon craters and even erase the footprints made by man on the lunar body.

"Eventually this will erase the footprints of the astronauts," Mihaly Horanyi, of the University of Colorado quipped.

Researchers also explained in their study that an impact of a single particle is already enough to throw thousands of grains into suspension before they make a landing on the lunar surface. 

This isn't actually the first time that NASA scientists have known about these dust clouds. In the late 1960s, many researchers already learned about this phenomenon when a number of images captured by early moon landers show a bright glow amid lunar sunsets, Tech Times has learned. 

"Identifying this permanent dust cloud engulfing the moon was a nice gift from this mission. We can carry these findings over to studies of other airless planetary objects like the moons of other planets and asteroids," Horanyi said.

"On Earth these cause meteors, which burn up in the atmosphere, but with the almost negligible atmosphere on the moon, these particles smash right into the lunar surface with tremendous speed," Horanyi added.

Thus far, scientists are hoping that they could find future practical applications for their newfound knowledge. Currently, they are thinking that if they could find a way to identify where certain cosmos dust particles are headed, they could help minimize and prevent outer space hazards like meteor showers from interfering future human space interaction.

The new research was published on the journal Nature this week. according to Big News Network.

Tagsmoon, Clouds, dust, NASA, outer space, mystery, Space, Cosmos