Search Publications
Assessing global trends in Mars magma compositions using ground truth
Head, James W.; Rogers, A. Deanne; McSween, Harry Y. +1 more
Global magmatic trends inferred from gamma-ray, visible/near-infrared, and thermal infrared spectrometers on Mars-orbiting spacecraft have been used to constrain planetary petrogenetic processes and global thermal evolution models. Inferred magmatic trends include temporal variations in the relative proportions of low-Ca and high-Ca pyroxenes, and…
Mid-infrared reflectance spectroscopy of aubrite components
Helbert, Joern; Hiesinger, Harald; Weber, Iris +5 more
Aubrites Peña Blanca Spring and Norton County were studied in the mid-infrared reflectance as part of a database for the MERTIS (Mercury Radiometer and Thermal Infrared Spectrometer) instrument on the ESA/JAXA BepiColombo mission to Mercury. Spectra of bulk powder size fractions from Peña Blanca Spring show enstatite Reststrahlen bands (RB) at 9 µ…
Measuring impact crater depth throughout the solar system
Beyer, Ross A.; Robbins, Stuart J.; Watters, Wesley A. +9 more
One important, almost ubiquitous, tool for understanding the surfaces of solid bodies throughout the solar system is the study of impact craters. While measuring a distribution of crater diameters and locations is an important tool for a wide variety of studies, so too is measuring a crater's "depth." Depth can inform numerous studies including th…
Testing landslide and atmospheric-effects models for the formation of double-layered ejecta craters on Mars
Head, James W.; Weiss, David K.
Double-layered ejecta (DLE) craters are distinctive among the variety of crater morphologies observed on Mars, but the mechanism by which they form remains under debate. We assess two ejecta emplacement mechanisms: (1) atmospheric effects from ejecta curtain-induced vortices or a base surge and (2) ballistic emplacement followed by a landslide of …
Search for sulfates on the surface of Ceres
McFadden, L. A.; Ruesch, O.; Li, J. -Y. +3 more
The formation of hydrated salts is an expected consequence of aqueous alteration of Main Belt objects, particularly for large, volatile-rich protoplanets like Ceres. Sulfates, present on water-bearing planetary bodies (e.g., Earth, Mars, and carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies) across the inner solar system, may contribute to Ceres' UV and IR spe…
Remote spectral-compositional analysis of basalt mineralogy at Hansteen-Billy, Moon
Chauhan, Mamta; Bhattacharya, Satadru; Pathak, Sumit +1 more
The Hansteen-Billy region of the Moon lying toward the southwest edge of Oceanus Procellarum is characterized by emplacement of three different aged basaltic units viz. INm, Im, and Em. The present study primarily utilizes high-resolution Chandrayaan-I, Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data clipped at 2.5 µm for mineral analysis of the…
Martian cratering 11. Utilizing decameter scale crater populations to study Martian history
Daubar, I. J.; Hartmann, W. K.
New information has been obtained in recent years regarding formation rates and the production size-frequency distribution (PSFD) of decameter-scale primary Martian craters formed during recent orbiter missions. Here we compare the PSFD of the currently forming small primaries (P) with new data on the PSFD of the total small crater population that…
Investigating target versus impactor influences on Martian crater morphology at the simple-complex transition
Hynek, Brian M.; Herrick, Robert R.
Comparing craters of identical diameter on a planet is an empirical method of studying the effects of different target and impactor properties while holding total impact energy nearly constant. We have analyzed the Martian crater population within a narrow diameter range (7 km < crater diameter < 9 km) at the simple-complex crater transition…
Snow carrots after the Chelyabinsk event and model implications for highly porous solar system objects
Luther, Robert; Wünnemann, Kai; Artemieva, Natalia +2 more
After the catastrophic disruption of the Chelyabinsk meteoroid, small fragments formed funnels in the snow layer covering the ground. We constrain the pre-impact characteristics of the fragments by simulating their atmospheric descent with the atmospheric entry model. Fragments resulting from catastrophic breakup may lose about 90% of their initia…
Searching for calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions in cometary particles with Rosetta/COSIMA
Stenzel, Oliver; Kissel, Jochen; Hilchenbach, Martin +2 more
The calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) found in chondritic meteorites are probably the oldest solar system solids, dating back to 4567.30 ± 0.16 million years ago. They are thought to have formed in the protosolar nebula within a few astronomical units of the Sun, and at a temperature of around 1300 K. The Stardust mission found evidence of C…