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1.
A simple analytical model is developed from which we have calculated the temperature throughout the lunar interior resulting from internal heat sources and the imposition of surface temperature boundary conditions. The surface temperature is determined almost entirely by the balance of solar heating and surface reradiation; as a consequence this temperature is latitude dependent, decreasing towards the lunar poles. The internal solution shows that the latitude effect exists almost undiminished to great depths within the Moon. It is suggested that this dependence on latitude may have a significant effect on the Moon’s thermal evolution. Using the liquefaction model the high concentration of lunar maria at low latitudes may be explained.  相似文献   

2.
A summary is given of the literature data on the content of volatiles in the lunar regolith, the characterization of the likely sources of the volatiles, and the possible processes of their migration and burial. The main sources of volatiles in the regolith are the solar wind, small Solar System bodies (comets and meteorites), and the lunar interior. Different sources are the leading ones for different volatiles. Water and other volatiles can accumulate on the surface and in the near-surface layers of the Moon only in the so-called cold traps in polar basins, where other volatiles, as well as water ice, including highly toxic elements such as mercury and cadmium must be accumulated. The content of volatiles in the lunar interior is comparable to that in terrestrial rocks. Water could have played an important role in the early stages of the Moon’s history, e.g., in the formation of mare basalts. The isotopic composition of the lunar juvenile water is similar to that on the Earth, which suggests a common origin of the terrestrial and lunar water.  相似文献   

3.
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.  相似文献   

4.
A computer simulation of the sputtering of lunar soil by solar wind protons was performed with the TRIM program. The rate of the sputtering-induced erosion of regolith particles was shown to be less than 0.2 Å per year. A preferential sputtering of Ca, Mg, and O was found along with a less intense sputtering of Fe, Si, and Ti. However, with no other selection mechanisms, surface concentrations of the atoms would differ from the volume ones by no more than 6 %. The enrichment of rims of regolith particles with iron occurs as a result of selective removal of lighter atoms from the lunar surface because of different energies of escape from the Moon's gravity. The energy distributions proved to be the same for all sorts of the sputtered atoms, except for implanted hydrogen; thus, a greater fraction of the atoms left on the lunar surface corresponds to heavier elements. According to simulation results, the concentration of reduced iron observed in the mature regolith could be attained during the time of regolith particle exposure to the present flux of solar wind (105 years). Thus, sputtering can provide the concentration of Fe0 observed in regolith. On periphery of a cloud of impact vapor the temperature is too low for an irreversible selective removal of evaporation products; thus, a meteoritic bombardment contributes to the formation of composition of the rims of regolith particles mainly through enrichment of the rims with elements from the bulk of the particles. The estimates of fluxes of backscattered solar wind protons and of sputtered protons, earlier implanted to the regolith, demonstrated that their contribution to the proton flux near the poles is only 104 cm–2 s–1. This is by two orders of magnitude smaller than the proton flux from the Earth's magnetosphere which is, therefore, the main source of protons for permanently shaded polar craters of the Moon.  相似文献   

5.
Wenzhe Fa 《Icarus》2007,190(1):15-23
3He (helium-3) in the lunar regolith implanted by the solar wind is one of the most valuable resources because of its potential as a fusion fuel. The abundance of 3He in the lunar regolith is related to solar wind flux, lunar surface maturity and TiO2 content, etc. A model of solar wind flux, which takes account of variations due to shielding of the nearside when the Moon is in the Earth's magnetotail, is used to present a global distribution of relative solar wind flux over the lunar surface. Using Clementine UV/VIS multispectral data, the global distribution of lunar surface optical maturity (OMAT) and the TiO2 content in the lunar regolith are calculated. Based on Apollo regolith samples, a linear relation between 3He abundance and normalized solar wind flux, optical maturity, and TiO2 content is presented. To simulate the brightness temperature of the lunar surface, which is the mission of the Chinese Chang-E project's multichannel radiometers, a global distribution of regolith layer thickness is first empirically constructed from lunar digital elevation mapping (DEM). Then an inversion approach is presented to retrieve the global regolith layer thickness. It finally yields the total amount of 3He per unit area in the lunar regolith layer, which is related to the regolith layer thickness, solar wind flux, optical maturity and TiO2 content, etc. The global inventory of 3He is estimated as 6.50×108 kg, where 3.72×108 kg is for the lunar nearside and 2.78×108 kg is for the lunar farside.  相似文献   

6.
Lunar dust: The Hazard and Astronaut Exposure Risks   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
This paper reviews the characterisation of lunar dust or regolith, the toxicity of the dust and associated health effects, the techniques for assessing the health risks from dust exposure and describes the measures used or being developed to mitigate exposure. Lunar dust is formed from micrometeorite impacts onto the Moon’s surface. The hypervelocity impacts result in communition and the formation of sharp and clingy agglutinates. The dust particles vary in size with the smallest being less than 10 μm. If the chemical reactive particles are deposited in the lungs, they may cause respiratory disease. During lunar exploration, the astronaut’s spacesuits will become contaminated with lunar dust. The dust will be released into the atmosphere when the suits are removed. The exposure risks to health will need to be assessed by relating to a permissible exposure limit. During the Apollo missions, the astronauts were exposed to lunar dust. Acute health effects from dust inhalation exposure included sore throat, sneezing and coughing. Long-term exposure to the dust may cause a more serious respiratory disease similar to silicosis. On future missions the methods used to mitigate exposure will include providing high air recirculation rates in the airlock, the use of a “Double Shell Spacesuit” so that contaminated spacesuits are removed before entering the airlock, the use of dust shields to prevent dust accumulating on surfaces, the use of high gradient magnetic separation to remove surface dust and the use of solar flux to sinter and melt the regolith around the spacecraft.  相似文献   

7.
A rich set of new measurements has greatly expanded our understanding of the Moon–plasma interaction over the last sixteen years, and helped demonstrate the fundamentally kinetic nature of many aspects thereof. Photon and charged particle impacts act to charge the lunar surface, forming thin Debye-scale plasma sheaths above both sunlit and shadowed hemispheres. These impacts also produce photoelectrons and secondary electrons from the surface, as well as ions from the surface and exosphere, all of which in turn feed back into the plasma environment. The solar wind interacts with sub-ion-inertial-scale crustal magnetic fields to form what may be the smallest magnetospheres in the solar system. Proton gyro-motion, solar wind pickup of protons scattered from the dayside surface, and plasma expansion into vacuum each affect the dynamics and structure of different portions of the lunar plasma wake. The Moon provides us with a basic plasma physics laboratory for the study of fundamental processes, some of which we cannot easily observe elsewhere. At the same time, the Moon provides us with a test bed for the study of processes that also operate at many other solar system bodies. We have learned much about the Moon–plasma interaction, with implications for other space and planetary environments. However, many fundamental problems remain unsolved, including the details of the coupling between various parts of the plasma environment, as well as between plasma and the surface, neutral exosphere, and dust. In this paper, we describe our current understanding of the lunar plasma environment, including illustrative new results from Lunar Prospector and Kaguya, and outstanding unsolved problems.  相似文献   

8.
The Apollo 14 Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment observed a series of bursts of 48.6 eV water vapor ions at the lunar surface during a 14-h period on March 7, 1971. The maximum flux observed was 108 ions cm–2 s–1 sr–1. These ions were also observed at Apollo 12, 183 km to the west. Evaluation of specific artificial sources including the Apollo missions and the Russian Lunokhod leads to the conclusion that the water vapor did not come from a man-made source. Natural sources exogenous to the Moon such as comets and the solar wind are also found to be inadequate to explain the observed fluxes. Consequently, these water vapor ions appear to be of lunar origin.Paper dedicated to Prof. Harold C. Urey on the occasion of his 80th birthday on 29 April 1973.  相似文献   

9.
Data relevant to the shallow structure of the Moon obtained at the Apollo seismic stations are compared with previously published results of the active seismic experiments. It is concluded that the lunar surface is covered by a layer of low seismic velocity (V p ? 100 m s?1), which appears to be equivalent to the lunar regolith defined previously by geological observations. This layer is underlain by a zone of distinctly higher seismic velocity at all of the Apollo landing sites. The regolith thicknesses at the Apollo 11, 12, and 15 sites are estimated from the shear-wave resonance to be 4.4, 3.7, and 4.4 m, respectively. These thicknesses and those determined at the other Apollo sites by the active seismic experiments appear to be correlated with the age determinations and the abundances of extralunar components at the sites.  相似文献   

10.
Spectral properties, magnetic fields, and dust transport at lunar swirls   总被引:1,自引:0,他引:1  
Lunar swirls are albedo anomalies associated with strong crustal magnetic fields. Swirls exhibit distinctive spectral properties at both highland and mare locations that are plausibly explained by fine-grained dust sorting. The sorting may result from two processes that are fairly well established on the Moon, but have not been previously considered together. The first process is the vertical electrostatic lofting of charged fine dust. The second process is the development of electrostatic potentials at magnetic anomalies as solar wind protons penetrate more deeply into the magnetic field than electrons. The electrostatic potential can attract or repel charged fine-grained dust that has been lofted. Since the finest fraction of the lunar soil is bright and contributes significantly to the spectral properties of the lunar regolith, the horizontal accumulation or removal of fine dust can change a surface’s spectral properties. This mechanism can explain some of the spectral properties of swirls, accommodates their association with magnetic fields, and permits aspects of weathering by micrometeoroids and the solar wind.  相似文献   

11.
We report new nitrogen and argon isotope and abundance results for single breccia clasts and agglutinates from four different sections of the Luna 24 drill core in order to re-evaluate the provenance of N trapped in lunar regolith, and to place limits on the flux of planetary material to the Moon’s surface. Single Luna 24 grains with 40Ar/36Ar ratios <1 show δ15N values between ?54.5‰ and +123.3‰ relative to terrestrial atmosphere. Thus, low-antiquity lunar soils record both positive and negative δ15N signatures, and the secular increase of the δ15N value previously postulated by Kerridge (Kerridge, J.F. [1975]. Science 188(4184), 162–164. doi:10.1126/science.188.4184.162) is no longer apparent when the Luna and Apollo data are combined. Instead, the N isotope signatures, corrected for cosmogenic 15N, are consistent with binary mixing between isotopically light solar wind (SW) N and a planetary N component with a δ15N value of +100‰ to +160‰. The lower δ15N values of Luna 24 grains compared to Apollo samples reflect a higher relative proportion of solar N, resulting from the higher SW fluence in the region of Mare Crisium compared to the central near side of the Moon. Carbonaceous chondrite-like micro-impactors match well the required isotope characteristics of the non-solar N component trapped in low-antiquity lunar regolith. In contrast, a possible cometary contribution to the non-solar N flux is constrained to be ?3–13%. Based on the mixing ratio of SW to planetary N obtained for recently exposed lunar soils, we estimate the flux of micro-impactors to be (2.2–5.7) × 103 tons yr?1 at the surface of the Moon. Our estimate for Luna 24 agrees well with that for young Apollo regolith, indicating that the supply of planetary material does not depend on lunar location. Thus, the continuous influx of water-bearing cosmic dust may have represented an important source of water for the lunar surface over the past ~1 Ga, provided that water removal rates (i.e., by meteorite impacts, photodissociation, and sputtering) do not exceed accumulation rates.  相似文献   

12.
Observations of the equatorial lunar sodium emission are examined to quantify the effect of precipitating ions on source rates for the Moon’s exospheric volatile species. Using a model of exospheric sodium transport under lunar gravity forces, the measured emission intensity is normalized to a constant lunar phase angle to minimize the effect of different viewing geometries. Daily averages of the solar Lyman α flux and ion flux are used as the input variables for photon-stimulated desorption (PSD) and ion sputtering, respectively, while impact vaporization due to the micrometeoritic influx is assumed constant. Additionally, a proxy term proportional to both the Lyman α and to the ion flux is introduced to assess the importance of ion-enhanced diffusion and/or chemical sputtering. The combination of particle transport and constrained regression models demonstrates that, assuming sputtering yields that are typical of protons incident on lunar soils, the primary effect of ion impact on the surface of the Moon is not direct sputtering but rather an enhancement of the PSD efficiency. It is inferred that the ion-induced effects must double the PSD efficiency for flux typical of the solar wind at 1 AU. The enhancement in relative efficiency of PSD due to the bombardment of the lunar surface by the plasma sheet ions during passages through the Earth’s magnetotail is shown to be approximately two times higher than when it is due to solar wind ions. This leads to the conclusion that the priming of the surface is more efficiently carried out by the energetic plasma sheet ions.  相似文献   

13.
In this paper we present quantitative results of observations of energetic neutral atoms (ENAs) originating from the lunar surface. These ENAs, which are hydrogen atoms, are the result of the solar wind protons being reflected from and neutralised at the surface of the Moon. These measurements were made with IBEX-Lo on NASA's IBEX satellite. From these measurements we derive the energy spectrum of the ENAs, their flux, and the lunar albedo for ENAs (i.e., the ratio of ENAs to the incoming solar wind protons). The energy spectra of the ENAs clearly show that their origin is directly from the solar wind via backscattering, and that they are not sputtered atoms. From several observation periods we derived an average global albedo of AH=0.09±0.05. From the observed energy spectra we derive a generic spectrum for unshielded bodies in the solar wind.  相似文献   

14.
The notion of a dry Moon has recently been challenged by the discovery of high water contents in lunar apatites and in melt inclusions within olivine crystals from two pyroclastic glasses. The highest and most compelling water contents were found in pyroclastic glasses that are not very common on the lunar surface. To obtain more representative constraints on the volatile content of the lunar interior, we measured the Zn content, a moderately volatile element, of mineral and rock fragments in lunar soils collected during Apollo missions. We here confirm that the Moon is significantly more depleted in Zn than the Earth. Combining Zn with existing K and Rb data on similar rocks allows us to anchor a new volatility scale based on the bond energy of nonsiderophile elements in their condensed phases. Extrapolating the volatility curve to H shows that the bulk of the lunar interior must be dry (≤1 ppm). This contrasts with the water content of the mantle sources of pyroclastic glasses, inferred to contain up to approximately 40 ppm water based on H2O/Ce ratios. These observations are best reconciled if the pyroclastic glasses derive from localized water‐rich heterogeneities in a dominantly dry lunar interior. We argue that, although late addition of 0.015% of a chondritic veneer to the Moon seems required to explain the abundance of platinum group elements (Day et al. 2007), the volatile content of the added material was clearly heterogeneous.  相似文献   

15.
Physical conditions in the near-surface layer of the Moon are overviewed. This medium is formed in the course of the permanent micrometeoroid bombardment of the lunar regolith and due to the exposure of the regolith to solar radiation and high-energy charged particles of solar and galactic origin. During a considerable part of a lunar day (more than 20%), the Moon is passing through the Earth’s magnetosphere, where the conditions strongly differ from those in the interplanetary space. The external effects on the lunar regolith form the plasma-dusty medium above the lunar surface, the so-called lunar exosphere, whose characteristic altitude may reach several tens of kilometers. Observations of the near-surface dusty exosphere were carried out with the TV cameras onboard the landers Surveyor 5, 6, and 7 (1967–1968) and with the astrophotometer of Lunokhod-2 (1973). Their results showed that the near-surface layer glows above the sunlit surface of the Moon. This was interpreted as the scattering of solar light by dust particles. Direct detection of particles on the lunar surface was made by the Lunar Ejects and Meteorite (LEAM) instrument deployed by the Apollo 17 astronauts. Recently, the investigations of dust particles were performed by the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) instrument at an altitude of several tens of kilometers. These observations urged forward the development of theoretical models for the lunar exosphere formation, and these models are being continuously improved. However, to date, many issues related to the dynamics of dust and the near-surface electric fields remain unresolved. Further investigations of the lunar exosphere are planned to be performed onboard the Russian landers Luna-Glob and Luna-Resurs.  相似文献   

16.
D.J. Burke 《Icarus》2011,211(2):1082-1088
Remote infrared spectroscopic measurements have recently re-opened the possibility that water is present on the surface of the Moon. Analyses of infrared absorption spectra obtained by three independent space instruments have identified water and hydroxyl (-OH) absorption bands at ∼3 μm within the lunar surface. These reports are surprising since there are many mechanisms that can remove water but no clear mechanism for replenishment. One hypothesis, based on the spatial distribution of the -OH signal, is that water is formed by the interaction of the solar wind with silicates and other oxides in the lunar basalt. To test this hypothesis, we have performed a series of laboratory simulations that examine the effect of proton irradiation on two minerals: anorthite and ilmenite. Bi-directional infrared reflection absorption spectra do not show any discernable enhancement of infrared absorption in the 3 μm spectral region following 1 or 100 keV proton irradiation at fluences between 1016 and 1018 ions cm−2. In fact, the post-irradiation spectra are characterized by a decrease in the residual O-H band within both minerals. Similarly, secondary ion mass spectrometry shows a decrease rather than an increase of the water group ions following proton bombardment of ilmenite. The absence of significant formation of either -OH or H2O is ascribed to the preferential depletion of oxygen by sputtering during proton irradiation, which is confirmed by post-irradiation surface analysis using X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy measurements. Our results provide no evidence to support the formation of H2O in the lunar regolith via implantation of solar wind protons as a mechanism responsible for the significant O-H absorption in recent spacecraft data. We determine an upper limit for the production of surficial -OH on the lunar surface by solar wind irradiation to be 0.5% (absorption depth).  相似文献   

17.
The solar wind interacts directly with the lunar surface material resulting in an essentially complete absorption of the corpuscles producing no upstream bowshock but a cavity downstream from the Moon. The main source of most neutral species of the atmosphere, except probably40Ar, is the solar-wind interaction products. The other sources which appear to be minor contributors to the atmosphere are the interaction products of cosmic rays, planetary degassing, effects of meteorite impacts and radioactive decays. Most of the hydrogen atoms derived from the solar-wind protons contribute to the atmosphere as hydrogen molecules rather than atoms. Only on the basis of the solar-wind protons, alpha particles and ions of oxygen and carbon, the atmospheric species concentration (cm–3) near the lunar surface at 300K are as follows: H2 3.3 to 9.9 × 103; He 2.4 to 4.7 × 103; H 3.7; OH 0.25; H2O 0.24; and O2, O, CO, CO2 and CH4 in concentrations smaller than H2. Whatever the source, the OH and H2O concentrations in the atmosphere are about the same. The calculated concentrations are in good agreement with the observations by the Apollo 17 lunar surface mass spectrometer and the Apollo 17 orbital UV spectrometer. At the time of sample collection from the Moon, the hydrogen content in the trapped gas layer of the lunar surface material was partly as hydrogen atoms and partly as hydrogen molecules, but at the time of sample analysis hydrogen was mostly in molecular form. The H2O content at the time of sample analysis was only a few parts per million by weight.Paper presented at the Conference on Interactions of the Interplanetary Plasma with the Modern and Ancient Moon, sponsored by the Lunar Science Institute, Houston, Texas and held at the Lake Geneva Campus of George Williams College, Wisconsin, between September 30 and October 4, 1974.  相似文献   

18.
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.  相似文献   

19.
The lunar surface is bathed in a variety of impacting particles originating from the solar wind, solar flares, and galactic cosmic rays. These particles can become embedded in the regolith and/or produce a range of other molecules as they pass through the target material. The Moon therefore contains a record of the variability of the solar and galactic particle fluxes through time. To obtain useful temporal snapshots of these processes, discrete regolith units must be shielded from continued bombardment that would rewrite the record over time. One mechanism for achieving this preservation is the burial of a regolith deposit by a later lava flow. The archival value of such deposits sandwiched between lava layers is enhanced by the fact that both the under- and over-lying lava can be dated by radiometric techniques, thereby precisely defining the age of the regolith layer and the geologic record contained therein. The implanted volatile species would be vulnerable to outgassing by the heat of the over-lying flow, at temperatures exceeding 300-700 °C. However, the insulating properties of the finely particulate regolith would restrict significant heating to shallow depths. We have therefore modeled the heat transfer between lunar mare basalt lavas and the regolith in order to establish the range of depths below which implanted volatiles would be preserved. We find that the full suite of solar wind volatiles, consisting predominantly of H and He, would survive at depths of ∼13-290 cm (for 1-10 m thick lava flows, respectively). A substantial amount of CO, CO2, N2 and Xe would be preserved at depths as shallow as 3.7 cm beneath meter-thick flows. Given typical regolith accumulation rates during mare volcanism, the optimal localities for collecting viable solar wind samples would involve stacks of thin mare lava flows emplaced a few tens to a few hundred Ma apart, in order for sufficient regolith to develop between burial events. Obtaining useful archives of Solar System processes would therefore require extraction of regolith deposits buried at quite shallow depths beneath radiometrically-dated mare lava flows. These results provide a basis for possible lunar exploration activities.  相似文献   

20.
A simplified model for the interaction of the cold solar wind with lunar magnetic anomalies is considered. Since on the illuminated side of the Moon the dynamic pressure of the solar wind significantly exceeds the magnetic pressure of the anomalies, upward propagation of the lunar field is possible only by means of diffusion. This process does not depend on the velocity but only on the concentration of the solar wind and the characteristic size of anomalies. Theoretical calculations are compared with the data of Apollo 12 and Explorer 35.  相似文献   

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