Structural disturbances of the lunar surface caused by spacecraft
| Autor: | Yu. G. Shkuratov, V. G. Kaydash |
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| Rok vydání: | 2012 |
| Předmět: | |
| Zdroj: | Solar System Research. 46:108-118 |
| ISSN: | 1608-3423 0038-0946 |
| Popis: | From the lunar surface survey performed with a narrow-angle camera of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) spacecraft, the distributions of the phase ratios of the Apollo 11 and 12 landing sites and the Ranger 9 impact site were mapped. In the acquired images, the traces of the structural disturbances of the lunar regolith layer caused by the jet flows are seen. In the Ranger 9 impact site, one can see the crater of about 15 m across with a ray system, which is hardly noticeable in the brightness picture, but has a high contract in the phase ratio picture. The character of the photometric anomaly of the rays of this crater shows that they are formed by the ejected stones composing the rugged relief, which induces a strong shadow effect. At the same time, the influence of jet flows from the rocket engines smooths the relief and leads to the photometric anomaly of the opposite sign. The estimate of the maturity degree of the lunar regolith in the Apollo 11 and 12 landing sites obtained from the SELENE spectral survey suggests that the depth of the influence of the rocket engines on the soil is small, and the surface of the impact crater formed by the Ranger 9 spacecraft contains a large amount of the immature soil. |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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