The Evolution of the Gravity Signature of Impact Structures on the Lunar Farside
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THE SOVIET MOON PROGRAM in the 1960S, the United States Was Not the Only Country That Was Trying to Land Someone on the Moon and Bring Him Back to Earth Safely
AIAA AEROSPACE M ICRO-LESSON Easily digestible Aerospace Principles revealed for K-12 Students and Educators. These lessons will be sent on a bi-weekly basis and allow grade-level focused learning. - AIAA STEM K-12 Committee. THE SOVIET MOON PROGRAM In the 1960s, the United States was not the only country that was trying to land someone on the Moon and bring him back to Earth safely. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, also called the Soviet Union, also had a manned lunar program. This lesson describes some of it. Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS): ● Discipline: Engineering Design ● Crosscutting Concept: Systems and System Models ● Science & Engineering Practice: Constructing Explanations and Designing Solutions GRADES K-2 K-2-ETS1-1. Ask questions, make observations, and gather information about a situation people want to change to define a simple problem that can be solved through the development of a new or improved object or tool. Have you ever been busy doing something when somebody challenges you to a race? If you decide to join the race—and it is usually up to you whether you join or not—you have to stop what you’re doing, get up, and start racing. By the time you’ve gotten started, the other person is often halfway to the goal. This is the sort of situation the Soviet Union found itself in when President Kennedy in 1961 announced that the United States would set a goal of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth before the end of the decade. -
Water on the Moon, III. Volatiles & Activity
Water on The Moon, III. Volatiles & Activity Arlin Crotts (Columbia University) For centuries some scientists have argued that there is activity on the Moon (or water, as recounted in Parts I & II), while others have thought the Moon is simply a dead, inactive world. [1] The question comes in several forms: is there a detectable atmosphere? Does the surface of the Moon change? What causes interior seismic activity? From a more modern viewpoint, we now know that as much carbon monoxide as water was excavated during the LCROSS impact, as detailed in Part I, and a comparable amount of other volatiles were found. At one time the Moon outgassed prodigious amounts of water and hydrogen in volcanic fire fountains, but released similar amounts of volatile sulfur (or SO2), and presumably large amounts of carbon dioxide or monoxide, if theory is to be believed. So water on the Moon is associated with other gases. Astronomers have agreed for centuries that there is no firm evidence for “weather” on the Moon visible from Earth, and little evidence of thick atmosphere. [2] How would one detect the Moon’s atmosphere from Earth? An obvious means is atmospheric refraction. As you watch the Sun set, its image is displaced by Earth’s atmospheric refraction at the horizon from the position it would have if there were no atmosphere, by roughly 0.6 degree (a bit more than the Sun’s angular diameter). On the Moon, any atmosphere would cause an analogous effect for a star passing behind the Moon during an occultation (multiplied by two since the light travels both into and out of the lunar atmosphere). -
Appendix I Lunar and Martian Nomenclature
APPENDIX I LUNAR AND MARTIAN NOMENCLATURE LUNAR AND MARTIAN NOMENCLATURE A large number of names of craters and other features on the Moon and Mars, were accepted by the IAU General Assemblies X (Moscow, 1958), XI (Berkeley, 1961), XII (Hamburg, 1964), XIV (Brighton, 1970), and XV (Sydney, 1973). The names were suggested by the appropriate IAU Commissions (16 and 17). In particular the Lunar names accepted at the XIVth and XVth General Assemblies were recommended by the 'Working Group on Lunar Nomenclature' under the Chairmanship of Dr D. H. Menzel. The Martian names were suggested by the 'Working Group on Martian Nomenclature' under the Chairmanship of Dr G. de Vaucouleurs. At the XVth General Assembly a new 'Working Group on Planetary System Nomenclature' was formed (Chairman: Dr P. M. Millman) comprising various Task Groups, one for each particular subject. For further references see: [AU Trans. X, 259-263, 1960; XIB, 236-238, 1962; Xlffi, 203-204, 1966; xnffi, 99-105, 1968; XIVB, 63, 129, 139, 1971; Space Sci. Rev. 12, 136-186, 1971. Because at the recent General Assemblies some small changes, or corrections, were made, the complete list of Lunar and Martian Topographic Features is published here. Table 1 Lunar Craters Abbe 58S,174E Balboa 19N,83W Abbot 6N,55E Baldet 54S, 151W Abel 34S,85E Balmer 20S,70E Abul Wafa 2N,ll7E Banachiewicz 5N,80E Adams 32S,69E Banting 26N,16E Aitken 17S,173E Barbier 248, 158E AI-Biruni 18N,93E Barnard 30S,86E Alden 24S, lllE Barringer 29S,151W Aldrin I.4N,22.1E Bartels 24N,90W Alekhin 68S,131W Becquerei -
GRAIL-Identified Gravity Anomalies in Oceanus Procellarum: Insight Into 2 Subsurface Impact and Magmatic Structures on the Moon 3 4 Ariel N
1 GRAIL-identified gravity anomalies in Oceanus Procellarum: Insight into 2 subsurface impact and magmatic structures on the Moon 3 4 Ariel N. Deutscha, Gregory A. Neumannb, James W. Heada, Lionel Wilsona,c 5 6 aDepartment of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 7 02912, USA 8 bNASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA 9 cLancaster Environment Centre, Lancaster University, Lancaster LA1 4YQ, UK 10 11 Corresponding author: Ariel N. Deutsch 12 Corresponding email: [email protected] 13 14 Date of re-submission: 5 April 2019 15 16 Re-submitted to: Icarus 17 Manuscript number: ICARUS_2018_549 18 19 Highlights: 20 • Four positive Bouguer gravity anomalies are analyzed on the Moon’s nearside. 21 • The amplitudes of the anomalies require a deep density contrast. 22 • One 190-km anomaly with crater-related topography is suggestive of mantle uplift. 23 • Marius Hills anomalies are consistent with intruded dike swarms. 24 • An anomaly south of Aristarchus has a crater rim and possibly magmatic intrusions. 25 26 Key words: 27 Moon; gravity; impact cratering; volcanism 1 28 Abstract 29 30 Four, quasi-circular, positive Bouguer gravity anomalies (PBGAs) that are similar in diameter 31 (~90–190 km) and gravitational amplitude (>140 mGal contrast) are identified within the central 32 Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon. These spatially associated PBGAs are located south of 33 Aristarchus Plateau, north of Flamsteed crater, and two are within the Marius Hills volcanic 34 complex (north and south). Each is characterized by distinct surface geologic features suggestive 35 of ancient impact craters and/or volcanic/plutonic activity. -
Modeling and Mapping of the Structural Deformation of Large Impact Craters on the Moon and Mercury
MODELING AND MAPPING OF THE STRUCTURAL DEFORMATION OF LARGE IMPACT CRATERS ON THE MOON AND MERCURY by JEFFREY A. BALCERSKI Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Earth, Environmental, and Planetary Sciences CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY August, 2015 CASE WESTERN RESERVE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF GRADUATE STUDIES We hereby approve the thesis/dissertation of Jeffrey A. Balcerski candidate for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Committee Chair Steven A. Hauck, II James A. Van Orman Ralph P. Harvey Xiong Yu June 1, 2015 *we also certify that written approval has been obtained for any proprietary material contained therein ~ i ~ Dedicated to Marie, for her love, strength, and faith ~ ii ~ Table of Contents 1. Introduction ............................................................................................................1 2. Tilted Crater Floors as Records of Mercury’s Surface Deformation .....................4 2.1 Introduction ..............................................................................................5 2.2 Craters and Global Tilt Meters ................................................................8 2.3 Measurement Process...............................................................................12 2.3.1 Visual Pre-selection of Candidate Craters ................................13 2.3.2 Inspection and Inclusion/Exclusion of Altimetric Profiles .......14 2.3.3 Trend Fitting of Crater Floor Topography ................................16 2.4 Northern -
Lunar Impact Basins Revealed by Gravity Recovery and Interior
Lunar impact basins revealed by Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory measurements Gregory Neumann, Maria Zuber, Mark Wieczorek, James Head, David Baker, Sean Solomon, David Smith, Frank Lemoine, Erwan Mazarico, Terence Sabaka, et al. To cite this version: Gregory Neumann, Maria Zuber, Mark Wieczorek, James Head, David Baker, et al.. Lunar im- pact basins revealed by Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory measurements. Science Advances , American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), 2015, 1 (9), pp.e1500852. 10.1126/sci- adv.1500852. hal-02458613 HAL Id: hal-02458613 https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-02458613 Submitted on 26 Jun 2020 HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est archive for the deposit and dissemination of sci- destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents entific research documents, whether they are pub- scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, lished or not. The documents may come from émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de teaching and research institutions in France or recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires abroad, or from public or private research centers. publics ou privés. RESEARCH ARTICLE PLANETARY SCIENCE 2015 © The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. Distributed Lunar impact basins revealed by Gravity under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). Recovery and Interior Laboratory measurements 10.1126/sciadv.1500852 Gregory A. Neumann,1* Maria T. Zuber,2 Mark A. Wieczorek,3 James W. Head,4 David M. H. Baker,4 Sean C. Solomon,5,6 David E. Smith,2 Frank G. -
GRAIL Gravity Observations of the Transition from Complex Crater to Peak-Ring Basin on the Moon: Implications for Crustal Structure and Impact Basin Formation
Icarus 292 (2017) 54–73 Contents lists available at ScienceDirect Icarus journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/icarus GRAIL gravity observations of the transition from complex crater to peak-ring basin on the Moon: Implications for crustal structure and impact basin formation ∗ David M.H. Baker a,b, , James W. Head a, Roger J. Phillips c, Gregory A. Neumann b, Carver J. Bierson d, David E. Smith e, Maria T. Zuber e a Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, RI 02912, USA b NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA c Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences and McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences, Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA d Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA e Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, MIT, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t Article history: High-resolution gravity data from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission provide Received 14 September 2016 the opportunity to analyze the detailed gravity and crustal structure of impact features in the morpho- Revised 1 March 2017 logical transition from complex craters to peak-ring basins on the Moon. We calculate average radial Accepted 21 March 2017 profiles of free-air anomalies and Bouguer anomalies for peak-ring basins, protobasins, and the largest Available online 22 March 2017 complex craters. Complex craters and protobasins have free-air anomalies that are positively correlated with surface topography, unlike the prominent lunar mascons (positive free-air anomalies in areas of low elevation) associated with large basins. -
Arxiv:0706.3947V1
Transient Lunar Phenomena: Regularity and Reality Arlin P.S. Crotts Department of Astronomy, Columbia University, Columbia Astrophysics Laboratory, 550 West 120th Street, New York, NY 10027 ABSTRACT Transient lunar phenomena (TLPs) have been reported for centuries, but their nature is largely unsettled, and even their existence as a coherent phenomenon is still controversial. Nonetheless, a review of TLP data shows regularities in the observations; a key question is whether this structure is imposed by human observer effects, terrestrial atmospheric effects or processes tied to the lunar surface. I interrogate an extensive catalog of TLPs to determine if human factors play a determining role in setting the distribution of TLP reports. We divide the sample according to variables which should produce varying results if the determining factors involve humans e.g., historical epoch or geographical location of the observer, and not reflecting phenomena tied to the lunar surface. Specifically, we bin the reports into selenographic areas (300 km on a side), then construct a robust average count for such “pixels” in a way discarding discrepant counts. Regardless of how we split the sample, the results are very similar: roughly 50% of the report count originate from the crater Aristarchus and vicinity, 16% from Plato, 6% from recent, major impacts (Copernicus, ∼ ∼ Kepler and Tycho - beyond Aristarchus), plus a few at Grimaldi. Mare Crisium produces a robust signal for three of five averages of up to 7% of the reports (however, Crisium subtends more than one pixel). The consistency in TLP report counts for specific features on this list indicate that 80% of the reports arXiv:0706.3947v1 [astro-ph] 27 Jun 2007 ∼ are consistent with being real (perhaps with the exception of Crisium). -
(GRAIL) Mission Maria T. Zuber1*, David E. Smith1, M
Gravity Field of the Moon from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) Mission Maria T. Zuber1*, David E. Smith1, Michael M. Watkins2, Sami W. Asmar2, Alexander S. Konopliv2, Frank G. Lemoine3, H. Jay Melosh4, Gregory A. Neumann3, Roger J. Phillips5, Sean C. Solomon6,7, Mark A. Wieczorek8, James G. Williams2, Sander J. Goossens9, Gerhard Kruizinga2, Erwan Mazarico1, Ryan S. Park2 and Dah-Ning Yuan2 Submitted to: Science 12 October 2012 Spacecraft-to-spacecraft tracking observations from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) have been used to construct a gravitational field of the Moon to spherical harmonic degree and order 420. The GRAIL field reveals features not previously resolved, including tectonic structures, volcanic landforms, basin rings, crater central peaks, and numerous simple craters. From degrees 80 through 300, over 98% of the gravitational signature is associated with topography, which reflects the preservation of craters in highly fractured crust. The remaining 2% represents fine details of subsurface structure not previously resolved. Ghost craters in the maria are not abundant, consistent with underlying highland crust being significantly modified by dikes and intrusions. GRAIL elucidates the role of impact bombardment in homogenizing the distribution of shallow density anomalies on terrestrial planetary bodies. _____________ The Moon is a key to deciphering the evolutionary history of the terrestrial planets because it is the most accessible planetary body that preserves a surface record spanning most of solar system history. Reconstructing planetary evolution requires an understanding of the structure of the interior, which contains information on bulk composition, differentiation, and the nature of heat generation and heat loss that has influenced the style, extent, and duration of volcanism and tectonics. -
North Polar Region Craterforms on Mars: Geometric Characteristics from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter
Icarus 144, 329–352 (2000) doi:10.1006/icar.1999.6298, available online at http://www.idealibrary.com on North Polar Region Craterforms on Mars: Geometric Characteristics from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter James B. Garvin NASA–Goddard Space Flight Center, Geodynamics, Code 921, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 E-mail: [email protected] Susan E. H. Sakimoto USRA at NASA–Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 921, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 James J. Frawley Herring Bay Geophysics, Raytheon-STX, at NASA–Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 921, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 and Charles Schnetzler SSAI at NASA–Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 920, Greenbelt, Maryland 20771 Received February 15, 1999; revised September 20, 1999 geologically recent surface, with evidence of effusive volcanism and This study focuses on topographic characterization of ice- enhanced sedimentation. In addition, the measured impact crater associated north polar region impact craters and several enigmatic depths for ice-associated craters suggest at least a few cases of en- polar craterforms using new information from the Mars Orbiter hanced excavation and thus a possibly weaker target relative to the Laser Altimeter (MOLA), an instrument aboard the Mars Global typical northern hemisphere plains. c 2000 Academic Press Surveyor (MGS) orbiter. We find that, for ice-associated craters, the Key Words: Mars; impact craters; polar processes; ejecta; topography reveals several surprising results not previously appar- volcanism. ent from orbital images alone. First, geometric properties for several impact craters associated with ice and frost deposits suggest that cavity infill is as high as 80% of reconstructed, preerosion levels. INTRODUCTION Second, craters associated with ice also demonstrate unique cav- ity geometries relative to their nonpolar counterparts. -
Current Affairs
IASbaba 60 Days CA Compilation – Week 1 &2 2019 Q.1) "Forty plus Nine (40+9)" Recommendations is concerned with which of the following institutions/organisations? a) Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank (AIIB) b) Financial Action Task Force (FATF) c) Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) d) Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) Q.1) Solution (b) Financial Action Task Force (FATF) is often seen in news. The FATF's primary policies issued are the Forty Recommendations on money laundering from 1990 and the Nine Special Recommendations (SR) on Terrorism Financing (TF). Together, the Forty Recommendations and Special Recommendations on Terrorism Financing set the international standard for anti-money laundering measures and combating the financing of terrorism and terrorist acts. They set out the principles for action and allow countries a measure of flexibility in implementing these principles according to their particular circumstances and constitutional frameworks. Both sets of FATF Recommendations are intended to be implemented at the national level through legislation and other legally binding measures. The 40+9 Recommendations, together with their interpretative notes, provide the international standards for combating money laundering (ML) and terrorist financing (TF). THINK! FATF Black list and Grey list OECD Source: http://www.fatf- gafi.org/publications/fatfrecommendations/documents/ixspecialrecommendations.html Q.2) Consider the following statements with respect to ‘Pradhan Mantri Surakshit -
Science Concept 3: Key Planetary Processes Are Manifested in the Diversity of Lunar Crustal Rocks
Science Concept 3: Key Planetary Processes are Manifested in the Diversity of Lunar Crustal Rocks Science Concept 3: Key planetary processes are manifested in the diversity of crustal rocks Science Goals: a. Determine the extent and composition of the primary feldspathic crust, KREEP layer, and other products of differentiation. b. Inventory the variety, age, distribution, and origin of lunar rock types. c. Determine the composition of the lower crust and bulk Moon. d. Quantify the local and regional complexity of the current lunar crust. e. Determine the vertical extent and structure of the megaregolith. INTRODUCTION Formation and Evolution of the Moon The Moon is a unique environment, preserving crucial information about the early history and later evolution of the solar system. The lack of major surficial tectonic processes within the past few billion years or so, as well as the lack of significant quantities of surface water, have allowed for excellent preservation of the lithologies and geomorphological features that formed during the major planetary formation events. Fundamental discoveries during the Apollo program showed that the Moon is made up of a variety of volcanic and impact rock types that exhibit a particular range of chemical and mineralogical compositions. The key planetary processes conveyed by this diversity include planetary differentiation, volcanism, and impact cratering. Analysis of Apollo, Luna, and lunar meteoritic samples, as well as orbital data from a series of lunar exploration missions, generated geophysical models that strove to tell the story of the Moon. However, such models are restricted in the sense that they are based on information gathered from the samples that have so far been acquired.