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Geostratigraphic Mapping of the Intrusive Valentine Domes on the Moon
Rossi, Angelo Pio; Suárez-Valencia, Javier Eduardo
Lunar intrusive igneous domes have not been the center of much research in the past due to their rare occurrence on the lunar surface, and the difficulty in locating them. Most of the known structures were discovered using images with low illumination angles, including data from the Lunar Orbiter, telescopic images, and photos taken during the Apo…
Energetic Neutral Atom (ENA) Emission Characteristics at the Moon and Mercury From 3D Regolith Simulations of Solar Wind Reflection
Wurz, P.; Fatemi, S.; Vorburger, A. +3 more
The reflection of solar wind protons as energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) from the lunar surface has regularly been used to study the plasma-surface interaction at the Moon. However, there still exists a fundamental lack of knowledge of the scattering process. ENA emission from the surface is expected to similarly occur at Mercury and will be studied…
Spectral Analysis of Mare Ingenii Basin (Lunar Farside)
Massironi, Matteo; Combe, Jean-Philippe; Tosi, Federico +8 more
Mare Ingenii is a site of great interest for lunar geology as it is one of the few basaltic plains on the farside of the Moon. It is located within the outer edge of the South Pole-Aitken basin, the largest and oldest impact basin in our Solar System. Mare Ingenii includes two large craters, Thomson and Thomson M, and a prominent swirl, a high-alb…
Mineralogy of Surface Materials at the Chang'E-5 Landing Site and Possible Exotic Sources From In Situ Spectral Observations
Yang, Maosheng; Qian, Yuqi; Horgan, Briony +2 more
China's Chang'E-5 (CE-5) mission landed at 43.06°N and 51.92°W on 1 December 2020, within the Northern Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon. The CE-5 landing site is situated within a young lunar basalt unit estimated to be around 2.0 Ga. A comprehensive understanding of the lunar regolith composition within the CE-5 region is pivotal as it furn…
On the Effect of Magnetospheric Shielding on the Lunar Hydrogen Cycle
Farrell, W. M.; Tucker, O. J.; Poppe, A. R.
The global distribution of surficial hydroxyl on the Moon is hypothesized to be derived from the implantation of solar wind protons. As the Moon traverses the geomagnetic tail, it is generally shielded from the solar wind; therefore, the concentration of hydrogen is expected to decrease during full Moon. A Monte Carlo approach is used to model the…
Solar Wind Implantation Into the Lunar Regolith: Monte Carlo Simulations of H Retention in a Surface With Defects and the H2 Exosphere
Farrell, W. M.; Killen, R. M.; Tucker, O. J. +1 more
The solar wind implants protons into the top 20-30 nm of lunar regolith grains, and the implanted hydrogen will diffuse out of the regolith but also interact with oxygen in the regolith oxides. We apply a statistical approach to estimate the diffusion of hydrogen in the regolith hindered by forming temporary bonds with regolith oxygen atoms. A Mon…
Recent shallow moonquake and impact-triggered boulder falls on the Moon: New insights from the Schrödinger basin
Head, James W.; Kiran Kumar, A. S.; Amitabh +8 more
Shallow moonquakes are thought to be of tectonic origin. However, the geologic structures responsible for these moonquakes are unknown. Here we report sites where moonquakes possibly occurred along young lobate scarps in the Schrödinger basin. Our analysis of Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter and Chandrayaan-1 images revealed four lobate scarps in diff…
Geology and composition of the Orientale Basin impact melt sheet
Spudis, Paul D.; Martin, Dayl J. P.; Kramer, Georgiana
Orientale Basin is one of the largest (930 km diameter) and youngest (~3.8 Ga) impact craters on the Moon. As the basin is only partly flooded by mare lava, its floor materials expose a major portion of the basin impact melt sheet, which some previous work has suggested might have undergone igneous differentiation. To test this idea, we remapped t…
Chandrayaan-1 observations of backscattered solar wind protons from the lunar regolith: Dependence on the solar wind speed
Barabash, Stas; Futaana, Yoshifumi; Wieser, Martin +3 more
We study the backscattering of solar wind protons from the lunar regolith using the Solar Wind Monitor of the Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer on Chandrayaan-1. Our study focuses on the component of the backscattered particles that leaves the regolith with a positive charge. We find that the fraction of the incident solar wind protons that backsca…
Gullies and landslides on the Moon: Evidence for dry-granular flows
Mustard, John; Ostrach, Lillian R.; Kiran Kumar, A. S. +7 more
High-resolution images from Chandrayaan-1 Terrain Mapping Camera and Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera reveal landslides and gully formation on the interior wall of a 7 km-diameter simple crater emplaced in Schrödinger basin on the farside of the Moon. These features occur on the steep upper crater wall, where the slope is ~35°. The gullies show…