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Near-infrared spectra of ferrous mineral mixtures and methods for their identification in planetary surface spectra
Bell, James F.; Cloutis, Edward A.; Mann, Paul +1 more
Iron-bearing minerals are a major component of planetary surfaces, and many can be identified by their characteristic absorption bands in the near-infrared (NIR). Here we present laboratory NIR spectra of a wide range of common Fe-bearing minerals (e.g., olivines, pyroxenes), glasses, and mineral/glass mixtures. We then use this suite of spectra t…
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…
Hybrid method for crater detection based on topography reconstruction from optical images and the new LU78287GT catalogue of Lunar impact craters
Lončarić, Sven; Wöhler, Christian; Salamunićcar, Goran +1 more
Impact craters are ubiquitous and well-studied structures of high geological relevance on the surfaces of the Earth's Moon, the terrestrial planets, the asteroids and the satellites of the outer planets. Therefore, it is not surprising that crater detection algorithms (CDAs) are one of the most studied subjects of image processing and analysis in …
Lunar polar craters - Icy, rough or just sloping?
Smith, David; Eke, Vincent R.; Bartram, Sarah A. +2 more
Circular Polarisation Ratio (CPR) mosaics from Mini-SAR on Chandrayaan-1 and Mini-RF on LRO are used to study craters near to the lunar north pole. The look direction of the detectors strongly affects the appearance of the crater CPR maps. Rectifying the mosaics to account for parallax also significantly changes the CPR maps of the crater interior…
Mineralogy of young lunar mare basalts: Assessment of temporal and spatial heterogeneity using M3 data from Chandrayaan-1
Murty, Sripada V. S.; Srivastava, Neeraj; Varatharajan, Indhu
A comparative assessment of the mineralogy of young basalts (∼1.2 Ga to ∼2.8 Ga) from the western nearside, Moscoviense basin, and the Orientale basin of the Moon has been made using Level 2 Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3) data from the Chandrayaan-1 mission. Spectral data characteristics of the individual units have been generated from fre…
First direct observation of sputtered lunar oxygen
Barabash, S.; Holmström, M.; Futaana, Y. +5 more
We present the first direct measurement of neutral oxygen in the lunar exosphere, detected by the Chandrayaan-1 Energetic Neutral Analyzer (CENA). With the lunar surface consisting of about 60% of oxygen in number, the neutral oxygen detected in CENA's energy range (11 eV-3.3 keV) is attributed to have originated from the lunar surface, where it w…
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…
Geological features and evolution history of Sinus Iridum, the Moon
Xiao, Long; Qiao, Le; Zhao, Jiannan +2 more
The Sinus Iridum region is one of the important candidate landing areas for the future Chinese lunar robotic and human missions. Considering its flat topography, abundant geomorphic features and complex evolutionary history, this region shows great significance to both lunar science and landing exploration, including powered descent, surface traff…
Mapping lunar mare basalt units in mare Imbrium as observed with the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³)
Hiesinger, H.; Besse, S.; Thiessen, F. +1 more
We examine compositional variations of volcanic units in the Imbrium basin using spectral observations from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³) instrument on board the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft. The spectral range of M³ reflectance measurements from 400 to 3000 nm is well-suited to study distinctive absorption bands near 1000 and 2000 nm resulting from…
Backscattered energetic neutral atoms from the Moon in the Earth's plasma sheet observed by Chandarayaan-1/Sub-keV Atom Reflecting Analyzer instrument
Barabash, Stas; Futaana, Yoshifumi; Wieser, Martin +8 more
We present the observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) produced at the lunar surface in the Earth's magnetotail. When the Moon was located in the terrestrial plasma sheet, Chandrayaan-1 Energetic Neutrals Analyzer (CENA) detected hydrogen ENAs from the Moon. Analysis of the data from CENA together with the Solar Wind Monitor (SWIM) onboard …