On the relationship between the Apollo 16 ancient regolith breccias and feldspathic fragmental breccias,and the composition of the prebasin crust in the Central Highlands of the Moon

Abstract Two types of texturally and compositionally similar breccias that consist largely of fragmental debris from meteorite impacts occur at the Apollo 16 lunar site: Feldspathic fragmental breccias (FFBs) and ancient regolith breccias (ARBs). Both types of breccia are composed of a suite of mostly feldspathic components derived from the early crust of the Moon and mafic impact-melt breccias produced during the time of basin formation. The ARBs also contain components, such as agglutinates and glass spherules, indicating that the material of which they are composed occurred at the surface of the Moon as fine-grained regolith prior to lithification of the breccias. These components are absent from the FFBs, suggesting that the FFBs might be the protolith of the ARBs. However, several compositional differences exist between the two types of breccia, making any simple genetic relationship implausible. First, clasts of mafic impact-melt breccia occurring in the FFBs are of a different composition than those in the ARBs. Also the feldspathic “prebasin” components of the FFBs have a lower average Mg/Fe ratio than the corresponding components of the ARBs; the average composition of the plagioclase in the FFBs is more sodic than that of the ARBs; and there are differences in relative abundances of rare earth elements. The two breccia types also have different provenances: the FFBs occur primarily in ejecta from North Ray crater and presumably derive from the Descartes Formation, while the ARBs are restricted to the Cayley plains. Together these observations suggest that although some type of fragmental breccia may have been a precursor to the ARBs, the FFBs of North Ray crater are not a significant component of the ARBs and, by inference, the Cayley plains. The average compositions of the prebasin components of the two types of fragmental breccia are generally similar to the composition of the feldspathic lunar meteorites. With 30–31% Al₂O₃, however, they are slightly richer in plagioclase than the most feldspathic lunar meteorites (～29% Al₂O₃), implying that the crust of the early central nearside of the Moon contained a higher abundance of highly feldspathic anorthosite than typical lunar highlands, as inferred from the lunar meteorites. The ancient regolith breccias, as well as the current surface regolith of the Cayley plains, are more mafic than (1) prebasin regoliths in the Central Highlands and (2) regions of highlands presently distant from nearside basins because they contain a high abundance (～30%) of mafic impact-melt breccias produced during the time of basin formation that is absent from other regoliths.     

Palaeointensity In the Pelagic Realm: Marine Sediment Data Compared With Archaeomagnetic and Lake Sediment Records

Summary. Four box cores collected from the Ontong—Java plateau during the Eurydice expedition have been used to make relative geomagnetic palaeo-intensity measurements. Rock magnetic measurements on the sediments show that they are characterized by a uniform magnetic mineralogy, and that they are suitable for relative intensity estimates. These are obtained by normalizing the NRM by an ARM imparted in a low DC bias field. the palaeoceanographic event known as the preservation spike is used to establish a crude time-scale for the record so that it may be compared with other data from the same region, and also with global palaeointensity estimates. the marine sediment data are quite similar to Australian intensity data from lake sediments and archaeomagnetic sources, but as might be expected exhibit some obvious differences from the global record.     

The MPE X-ray test facility PANTER: Calibration of hard X-ray (15–50 kev) optics

The Max-Planck-Institut für extraterrestrische Physik (MPE) in Garching, Germany, uses its large X-ray beam line facility PANTER for testing X-ray astronomical instrumentation. A number of telescopes, gratings, filters, and detectors, e.g. for astronomical satellite missions like Exosat, ROSAT, Chandra (LETG), BeppoSAX, SOHO (CDS), XMM-Newton, ABRIXAS, Swift (XRT), have been successfully calibrated in the soft X-ray energy range (< 15keV). Moreover, measurements with mirror test samples for new missions like ROSITA and XEUS have been carried out at PANTER. Here we report on an extension of the energy range, enabling calibrations of hard X-ray optics over the energy range 15–50 keV. Several future X-ray astronomy missions (e.g., Simbol-X, Constellation-X, XEUS) have been proposed, which make use of hard X-ray optics based on multilayer coatings. Such optics are currently being developed by the Osservatorio Astronomico di Brera (OAB), Milano, Italy, and the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics (CfA), Cambridge, MA, USA. These optics have been tested at the PANTER facility with a broad energy band beam (up to 50 keV) using the XMM-Newton EPIC-pn flight spare CCD camera with its good intrinsic energy resolution, and also with monochromatic X-rays between C-K (0.277 keV) and Cu-Kα (8.04 keV). PACS: 95.55.Ka, 95.55.Aq, 41 50.+h, 07.85.Fv     

Pulsar Wind Nebulae in Egret Error Boxes

A remarkable number of pulsar wind nebulae (PWN) are coincident with EGRET γ-ray sources. X-ray and radio imaging studies of unidentified EGRET sources have resulted in the discovery of at least six new pulsar wind nebulae (PWN). Stationary PWN (SPWN) appear to be associated with steady EGRET sources with hard spectra, typical for γ-ray pulsars. Their toroidal morphologies can help determine the geometry of the pulsar which is useful for constraining models of pulsed γ-ray emission. Rapidly moving PWN (RPWN) with more cometary morphologies seem to be associated with variable EGRET sources in regions where the ambient medium is dense compared to what is typical for the ISM.     

Influence of the Choice of Core-Envelope Transition Point on the Binary Merger of Two Main-sequence Components

We have studied the influence of different choices of core-envelope transition point on the final merger of contact binaries with two main-sequence components. A binary of 1.00 + 0.90M⊙ with an initial orbital period of 0.35d is examined. The mass fraction of the primary mixed with the matter of the secondary, qmix, determined by the chosen core-envelope transition point, ranges from 0.04 to 1.00 in our analysis. If as qmix< 0.8, none of the