SOHO's SWAN instrument mapped ultraviolet light from Earth's faint hydrogen geocorona beyond the Moon's orbit. ESA reports that the archived observations, made in 1996–1998, traced the glow to about 630,000 km; near lunar distance, the hydrogen is so sparse it amounts to a vacuum by Earth standards.
This is the diffuse outer exosphere—not breathable air surrounding the Moon—and the reported distance is not a sharp atmospheric boundary. Research checked September 23, 2026.
Sources: ESA/SOHO geocorona report: https://www.esa.int/content/view/full/526597 · Baliukin et al., JGR Space Physics: https://doi.org/10.1029/2018JA026136
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