Search Publications
Lunar elemental abundances as derived from Chandrayaan-2
Bhatt, M.; Narendranath, S.; Pillai, Netra S. +6 more
The distribution of Mg, Al, Si, Ca and Fe on the lunar surface are important to understand the petrological characteristics of the Moon and its geological evolution. We derived new elemental distribution maps using the Chandrayaan-2 Large Area Soft X-ray Spectrometer (CLASS) experiment onboard the Chandrayaan-2 Orbiter. These are the first set of …
Applying machine learning to a nonlinear spectral mixing model for mapping lunar soils composition using CHANDRAYAAN-1 M3 data
Mall, Urs; Surkov, Yehor; Kaydash, Vadym +4 more
We present a newly developed method which combines the nonlinear spectral mixing model of Shkuratov et al. (1999) with a machine learning algorithm to map the lunar regolith composition using spectral data. The new method performs orders of magnitude faster than the traditionally used numerical optimization approaches, allowing the mapping of rego…
Crustal origin for olivine in the lunar Shioli crater ejecta boulders: Insights from the geological setting of Theophilus crater and Nectaris basin
Bhattacharya, Satadru; Pathak, Sumit; Kumar, P. Senthil +6 more
On the Moon, impact craters and basins expose a wide range of crustal and mantle rocks that provide excellent opportunity for sampling them, understanding their origins and reconstructing spatial and temporal evolution of lunar interior. The previous studies detected olivine-bearing mantle rocks in and around large impact craters and basins. The J…
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…
On the origins of backscattered solar wind energetic neutral hydrogen from the Moon and Mercury
Verkercke, S.; Leblanc, F.; Tramontina, D. +8 more
The surfaces of planetary airless bodies are directly bombarded by solar particles. The most abundant of those particles are solar wind protons. In the case of the Moon, many in situ observations have shown that a significant portion of these incident solar-wind protons are backscattered as energetic neutral hydrogen atoms (ENA). Measurements of t…
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…
Effects of Airless Bodies' Regolith Structures and of the Solar Wind's Properties on the Backscattered Energetic Neutral Atoms Flux
Verkercke, S.; Chaufray, J. -Y.; Leblanc, F. +4 more
The surfaces of airless planetary bodies, such as the Moon or Mercury, are covered with regoliths, which interact with the solar wind. The solar protons can either be absorbed by the surface or neutralized and reflected as hydrogen energetic neutral atoms (ENAs). The ENA flux is thought to depend mostly on the structure of the upper regolith layer…
Chronology, composition, and mineralogy of mare basalts in the junction of Oceanus Procellarum, Mare Imbrium, Mare Insularum, and Mare Vaporum
Chen, Jian; Zhao, Zixu; Ling, Zongcheng +2 more
The timeline of volcanic activity is critical for constraining the thermal evolution of the Moon. The spatial extents of mare basalts, major products of lunar volcanism, have been precisely extracted from LROC (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera) image mosaics. With the maria extents newly extracted from LROC mosaics, we found that a large area o…
Understanding the mineralogy of a compositional anomaly north of the Korolev basin using Moon mineralogy mapper
Chaudhuri, N.; Kusuma, K. N.; Aravind Bharathvaj, S.
The work attempts to understand the mineralogy of the reported geochemical anomaly located in the north - northeast region of the Korolev basin using Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) onboard Chandrayaan -1 and other lunar datasets. To understand the mineralogy, colour composite images using integrated band depth parameters and mineral indice…
Comparative analysis of photometric parameters over Apollo landing sites from Terrain Mapping Camera (Chandrayaan-1/2) and lab measured data
Arya, A. S.; Nagori, Rohit; Dagar, Aditya K.
Terrain Mapping Camera (TMC) onboard Chandrayaan-1/2 have provided high spatial resolution (∼5m) panchromatic images in three stereo-views of fore, nadir and aft, (-25⁰, 0⁰, 25⁰), respectively. This study presents the comparative analysis of photometric properties in visible domain from TMC and lab measured data over Apollo 11, 12, 16 and 17 landi…