Just like an accountant's office party, our moon has no atmosphere as it lacks a sufficiently strong magnetic field and mass to contain an atmosphere around it, and would quickly be stripped away by solar winds. New research from NASA's Solar System Exploration Research Virtual Institute, suggests that the moon briefly had an atmosphere 3 to 4 billion years ago, and was formed when volcanic eruptions rocked its surface, propelling gases above the surface too rapidly for them to drift off into space. These eruptions caused impact basins filled with volcanic basalt plains, called maria, to form on the surface. Astronauts from the Apollo missions brought back samples from the maria, and analysis has shown that they contained carbon monoxide and other gas components, sulfur, and even the building blocks of water. The researchers concluded that much of the gas rose and accumulated to form the transient atmosphere, and that the volcanic activity peaked about 3.5 billion years ago, which was when the atmosphere was at its thickest. To find out more check out New NASA study shows moon once had an atmosphere.