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Strong influence of lunar crustal fields on the solar wind flow
Barabash, Stas; Holmström, Mats; Futaana, Yoshifumi +5 more
We discuss the influence of lunar magnetic anomalies on the solar wind and on the lunar surface, based on maps of solar wind proton fluxes deflected by the magnetic anomalies. The maps are produced using data from the Solar WInd Monitor (SWIM) onboard the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. We find a high deflection efficiency (average ∼10%, locally ∼50%) o…
Compositional diversity at Theophilus Crater: Understanding the geological context of Mg-spinel bearing central peaks
Head, J. W.; Dhingra, D.; Pieters, C. M. +3 more
Analysis of high resolution Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data reveals the presence of a prominent Mg-spinel-rich lithology in the central peaks of Theophilus crater on the lunar nearside. Other peak-associated lithologies are comprised of plagioclase, olivine, and pyroxene-bearing materials. A consistent spatial association of Mg-spinel …
Scattering function for energetic neutral hydrogen atoms off the lunar surface
Barabash, S.; Holmström, M.; Futaana, Y. +7 more
The Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer instrument on board the lunar orbiter Chandrayaan-1 provided a large number of measurements of lunar energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). These ENAs were formerly solar wind ions, which were neutralized and backscattered from the lunar surface. The angles under which the ENAs are scattered strongly depend on the sol…
Resolution of the lunar hydrogen enigma
Hodges, R. R.
The recent discovery, by instruments on the IBEX and Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft, of significant fluxes of energetic hydrogen atoms escaping from the moon suggests that there are flaws in the common wisdom regarding the interaction of solar wind with lunar regolith that have prevailed in attempts to explain the failure of the Apollo 17 far-ultraviole…