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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…
Chandrayaan-3 Alternate Landing Site: Pre-Landing Characterisation
Bhatt, Megha; Bhardwaj, Anil; Srivastava, Neeraj +5 more
India's third Moon mission Chandrayaan 3 will deploy a lander and a rover at a high latitude location of the Moon enabling us to carry out first ever in-situ science investigations of such a pristine location that will potentially improve our understanding on primary crust formation and subsequent modification processes. The primary landing site (…
Hybrid Volcanic Episodes within the Orientale Basin, Moon
Harish; Patel, Shreekumari Mukeshbhai; Patel, Deep +2 more
Basalts from Mare Orientale are representative of lunar flood volcanism, which sheds light on the lunar farside's thermal and volcanic past. We use Chandrayaan's Moon Mineralogy Mapper data to examine the spectral and chemical makeup of the volcanic units located in the Orientale basin; the analysis specifically focuses on three formations: Mare O…
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…