... Tonight's Sky . ... Sky this Month . ... solar system . ... Sky this Week . ... Deflector shields" protect the lunar surface . ... It has long been thought that the swirls were a result of magnetic shielding of the lunar surface from the solar wind, but nobody understood how the relatively weak magnetic fields associated with lunar swirls could sufficiently protect the Moon's surface over hundreds of millions of years to prevent surface darkening and produce such finely detailed patterns. ...