Lunar Dust: Properties and Potential Hazards

Solar System Research - The surface of the Moon, like that of any airless body in the Solar System, constantly experiences micrometeorite bombardment as well as the influence of solar radiation,...     

Lunar Ice: Adsorbed Water on Subsurface Polar Dust

Differential scanning calorimetry indicates that adsorbed water and goethite, a product of hydrated ilmenite, are thermally stable over geologic time in the lunar polar regions. Adsorbed water can undergo burial as a result of several mechanisms, thereby achieving protection from sputtering or Lyman α radiation losses. Adsorbed, subsurface water layers on lunar dust, and any hydrated minerals present, could account for a majority of the hydrogen at the north lunar pole as well as account for a portion of that found at the south pole, particularly in small (<10 km) craters. Lunar ice, if it forms by condensation of water vapor in polar cold traps, will initially be in the form of amorphous solid water, and its rate of crystallization will depend on trap temperature and the composition of the surfaces upon which it has condensed. Between 95 and 110 K, diurnal temperature fluctuations cause surface ice deposits to migrate through the lunar regolith. Via such migration, stable and immobile layers of adsorbed water will be formed. In this temperature range, which can be expected at the margins of large craters and in smaller craters, any water resource would be a mixture of relatively unstable bulk ice and stable adsorbed water on subsurface dust and fines.     

The Chemical Reactivity of Lunar Dust: From Toxicity to Astrobiology

The chemical reactivity of lunar dust is an important topic of inquiry, of fundamental scientific value and of practical relevance to human exploration of the Moon. Lunar specimens brought back to Earth by the Apollo astronauts provide a key resource for ground-based studies which help to define the initial avenues of inquiry. Even among the limited samples obtained from equatorial exploration sites, however, chemical reactivity analyses indicates that lunar dust is heterogeneous, a finding that parallels heterogeneity revealed by remote sensing studies. The region-to-region variability of lunar dust argues that a full understanding of its chemical reactivity will require in situ analysis, on a region-to-region basis. The data from such investigations will help to shape our understanding of the potential for lunar dust toxicity, and will provide insight into the types of reactions that may occur with when lunar dust interacts with organic molecules on the surface of the Moon.     

METEOR-L Device on the Lunar Orbital Vehicle Luna-26: Space Dust Detector

Solar System Research - The ionization-type cosmic dust detector METEOR-L is being developed for the lunar orbiter Luna-26 and is designed to study the distribution of meteoric bodies in space by...     

Physical and Mechanical Properties of Lunar and Planetary Soils

Earth, Moon, and Planets -     

Scattering Properties and Composition of Cometary Dust

Composition of the Comet dust obtained by the dust impact analyzer on the Halley probes indicated that the comet dust is a mixture of silicate and carbonaceous material. The collected interplanetary dust particles (IDP's) are fluffy and composite, having grains of several different types stuck together. Using discrete dipole approximation (DDA) we study the scattering properties of composite grains. In particular, we study the angular distribution of the scattered intensity and linear polarization of composite grains. We assume that the composite grains are made up of a host silicate sphere/spheroid with the inclusions of graphite. Results of our calculations on the composite grains show that the angle of maximum polarization shifts, and the degree of polarization varies with the volume fraction of the inclusions. We use these results on the composite grains to interpret the observed scattering in cometary dust.     

Lunar Beagle and Lunar Astrobiology

The study of the elements and molecules of astrobiological interest on the Moon can be made with the Gas Analysis Package (GAP) and associated instruments developed for the Beagle 2 Mars Express Payload. The permanently shadowed polar regions of the Moon may offer a unique location for the “cold-trapping” of the light elements (i.e. H, C, N, O, etc.) and their simple compounds. Studies of the returned lunar samples have shown that lunar materials have undergone irradiation with the solar wind and adsorb volatiles from possible cometary and micrometeoroid impacts. The Beagle 2’s analytical instrument package including the sample processing facility and the GAP mass spectrometer can provide vital isotopic information that can distinguish whether the lunar volatiles are indigenous to the moon, solar wind derived, cometary in origin or from meteoroids impacting on the Moon. As future Lunar Landers are being considered, the suite of instruments developed for the Mars Beagle 2 lander can be consider as the baseline for any lunar volatile or resource instrument package.     

Maser Mapping and Dust Properties of Red Supergiant Winds

Maser emission from the circumstellar envelopes of four late-type red supergiants has been mapped with milli-arcsecond resolution using MERLIN1. The wind is driven by radiation pressure on dust and the structure and kinematics of the masing regions reflect the dust properties. The unbeamed radius of water maser blobs, ∼ 10¹² m, has been measured for the first time. The velocity gradient is used to derive the dust absorption coefficient which increases with radius from ≤ 0.1 to ≤ 1.0 m² kg⁻¹. Comparison with laboratory studies suggests that small crystalline grains are formed near the star and are annealed into astronomical silicates at larger distances. This revised version was published online in September 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Temperature-Dependent Near-Infrared Spectral Properties of Minerals, Meteorites, and Lunar Soil

The near-IR spectral properties of minerals, meteorites, and lunar soil vary with temperature. The manner in which these materials vary is diagnostic of aspects of their composition. We quantify the spectral dependence on temperature by reporting the change in relative reflectance with temperature as a function of wavelength. We call this quantity, ΔR/ΔT (in units of K⁻¹), as a function of temperature the “thermo-reflectance spectrum.” The thermo-reflectance spectra of olivine and pyroxene are distinct, and most of the observable structure in thermo-reflectance spectra of the ordinary and carbonaceous chondrites can be understood in terms of a mixture of the thermo-reflectance spectra of olivine and pyroxene. The magnitude of thermo-reflectance spectra of meteorites and lunar soils is much less than that of pure minerals. Lunar soils are particularly subdued. While conventional analysis of remotely obtained spectra of the Moon can neglect temperature effects, spatially resolved measurements of the surface of the asteroid Vesta will likely have a strong temperature-dependent component based on measurements of a eucrite and a howardite.     

Lunar motion: Theory and observations

Results of several fits of the lunar theory ELP 2000-82B and of Moons' theory of libration are presented. The theories are fitted both to JPL numerical integrations and to LLR observations     

Lunar gravity: Apollo 17

Gravity results are displayed as a band of contours ≈60 km wide spanning 140° of frontside longitude. The contours traverse Grimaldi, Mare Procellarum, Copernicus, Apennines, Mare Serenitatis, Littrow, and Mare Crisium. Redundant gravity area previously mapped by Apollos 14, 15, 16, and the Apollo subsatellites are tabulated and show excellent consistency. Modeling of Grimaldi reveals a loading more than the known mascons and thus makes Grimaldi the smallest known mascon feature. Copernicus' gravity profile is best modeled with a mass defect for the basin and a mass excess for the rim. Mare Serenitatis has an irregular mass distribution with central gravity highs shifted approximately 3° in latitude.     

Lunar gravity: Apollo 16

Reduction of doppler radio tracking of the orbiting spacecraft has shown consistency with Apollo 14 data results and has revealed new gravity anomalies. Large craters are negative anomalies while wrinkle ridge regions are positive. The Central highlands are mostly a positive anomaly except for the Apollo 16 landing site, which is in a negative area. A gravity high northwest of Theophilus is not easily explained.     

今后几年的月球探测和月球科学

近年来月球探测已经进入了一个全新的时代。特别是 1 990年以来 ,多个月球探测计划已经被成功实现 ,而且另外还有多个探测计划也在准备当中 ,并将在未来的几年内发射升空。在这种背景之下 ,中国的航天机构和有关的科学家也开始积极酝酿和开发自己的月球探测计划。这些月球探测计划将利用卫星上搭载的各种仪器探测和测量月球的地质和地理特性、化学成分和矿物组成、月球物理学特征以及包含地球大气在内的地月空间环境和行星际空间环境 ;进一步研究月球的起源和演化 ,探明月面环境 ,研究太阳等离子体物理 ,提供月面天文台和月面长期科研基地的候选地址 ,调查月球上的可利用资源 ,为将来开发月球提供充实的背景资料。参与新一轮的月球探测同样也为中国天文学研究带来了新的机会。     

Lunar Occultations Observed in Japan and Lunar Limb Profiles Derived

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Lunar nomenclature: A dissenting note

This note reviews the nature of the traditional (Mädler) lunar nomenclature and the recent developments based on the use of more than 2000 named provinces. It appears that the new nomenclature is less efficient than the old in many cases and may lead to an impossible publication situation. The unnecessary break with the past is especially critized.     

Lunar Clinopyroxene and Plagioclase: Surface Distribution and Composition

The Clementine UVVIS images and the spectral and chemical (mineral) characteristics of lunar soil samples previously measured by the Lunar Samples Characterization Consortium were used to map the plagioclase and clinopyroxene abundance in the lunar surface material. An excess of plagioclase was found in young highland craters (e.g., in the crater Tycho) and in their ray systems. For clinopyroxenes, analogous behavior was observed in mare craters (e.g., in the crater Aristarchus). The maps for the FeO and Al₂O₃ bulk contents and the contents of these oxides in plagioclase and clinopyroxene were estimated by the same technique. These maps were compared to each other and to the predicted distribution of the lunar regolith maturity. The regolith of highland ray systems (e.g., the Tycho crater system) is characterized not only by low maturity but also by peculiar iron and aluminum contents: the lower the soil maturity degree, the smaller the iron content and the greater the aluminum content. This is confirmed by the data for the lunar soil samples from the Apollo 16 landing site. A cluster analysis of the “clinopyroxene content-maturity” and “plagioclase content-maturity” correlation diagrams allowed the mineral mapping of the lunar surface to be performed.__________Translated from Astronomicheskii Vestnik, Vol. 39, No. 4, 2005, pp. 291–303.Original Russian Text Copyright © 2005 by Shkuratov, Kaydash, Pieters.     

Lunar Water: A Brief Review

One of the most exciting recent developments in the field of lunar science has been the unambiguous detection of water (either as OH or H₂O) or water ice on the Moon through instruments flown on a number of orbiting spacecraft missions. At the same time, continued laboratory-based investigations of returned lunar samples by Apollo missions using high-precision, low-detection, analytical instruments have for the first time, provided the absolute abundance of water (present mostly as structurally bound OH⁻ in mineral phases) in lunar samples. These new results suggest that the Moon is not an anhydrous body, questioning conventional wisdom, and indicating the possibility of a wet lunar interior and the presence of distinct reservoirs of water on the lunar surface. However, not all recent results point to a wet Moon and it appears that the distribution of water on the Moon may be highly heterogeneous. Additionally, a number of sources are likely to have contributed to the water inventory of the Moon ranging from primordial water to meteorite-derived water ice through to the water formed during the reaction of solar-wind hydrogen with the lunar soil. Water on the Moon has implications for future astrobiological investigations as well as for generating resources in situ during future exploration of the Moon and other airless bodies in the Solar System.     

China's Lunar Exploration Program: Present and future

China launched its first lunar probe, Chang’E-1, at 6:05 p.m. (10:05 GMT), October 24, 2007. Chang’E-1 blasted off on a Long March 3A carrier rocket from the No. 3 launch tower in the Xichang Satellite Launch Center of southwestern Sichuan Province. China National Space Administration performed the lunar orbit injection maneuver for Chang’E-1 at 11:25 a.m. on November 5, 2007 (China Standard Time). Chang’E-1 was injected into the lunar orbit after the maneuver, and will begin to explore the moon in the following 1 year. It is the first step into its ambitious three-phase moon mission, marking a new milestone in the Chinese space exploration history.     

Lunar mascons: another model and its implications

A mascon model is proposed in which the mass excess of the mare basalts in the circular maria is supported isostatically by mass deficits at depth. The model predicts the observed positive gravity anomalies surrounded by negative ring anomalies and explains the absence of gravity anomalies over the irregular maria. The model implies that mare basalts were derived by partial melting of a source region at depth due to pressure relief resulting from the excavation of the circular mare basins, and that the crystalline residuum in the source region is of lower density than the original source rock. The trace element enrichment and near cotectic character of Apollo 11 and 12 lavas reported by some investigators may be caused by extensive magma fractionation enroute from an origin in the circular maria to the final, distant emplacement sites.     

Dust Grains in the Comae and Tails of Sungrazing Comets: Modeling of Their Mineralogical and Morphological Properties

Observations of sungrazing comets, all of which belong to the Kreutz family, provide the opportunity of studying the properties of dust in the comae and tails of the comets. On the basis of available information on cometary and interplanetary dust as well as observations of dust in the tails of sungrazers, we model dust in sungrazing comets as fluffy silicate aggregates of submicrometer sizes. To better interpret observational data, we numerically calculate the solar radiation pressure, the equilibrium temperature, and the sublimation and crystallization rates of silicate grains near the Sun. Our results show that the dust tails contain aggregates of submicrometer crystal grains, but not amorphous grains, since amorphous silicates mostly crystallize after release from the comets. The peak in the lightcurves of the dust comae observed either at 11.2 or 12.3 solar radii (R_⊙) seems to result from sublimation of fluffy aggregates consisting of crystalline or amorphous olivines, respectively. We attribute an additional enhancement in the lightcurves inside 7 R_⊙ to increasing out-flow of crystalline and amorphous pyroxenes composed fluffy aggregates. According to our model, the observed lightcurves indicate a high abundance of olivine and a low abundance of pyroxene in the comets, which may bear implications about the dynamical and thermal history of the sungrazers and their progenitor.