Dataset Information

Widespread distribution of OH/H2O on the lunar surface inferred from spectral data.

ABSTRACT: Remote sensing data from lunar orbiters have revealed spectral features consistent with the presence of OH or H2O on the lunar surface. Analyses of data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper spectrometer onboard the Chandryaan-1 spacecraft have suggested that OH/H2O is recycled on diurnal timescales and persists only at high latitudes. However, the spatial distribution and temporal variability of the OH/H2O, as well as its source, remain uncertain. Here we incorporate a physics-based thermal correction into analysis of reflectance spectra from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper and find that prominent absorption features consistent with OH/H2O can be present at all latitudes, local times, and surface types examined. This suggests the widespread presence of OH/H2O on the lunar surface without significant diurnal migration. We suggest that the spectra are consistent with the production of OH in space weathered materials by the solar wind implantation of H+ and formation of OH at crystal defect sites, as opposed to H2O sourced from the lunar interior. Regardless of the specific composition or formation mechanism, we conclude that OH/H2O can be present on the Moon under thermal conditions more wide-ranging than previously recognized.

SUBMITTER: Bandfield JL

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5835832 | biostudies-literature | 2018

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Widespread distribution of OH/H2O on the lunar surface inferred from spectral data.

Bandfield Joshua L JL Poston Michael J MJ Klima Rachel L RL Edwards Christopher S CS

Nature geoscience 20180212

Remote sensing data from lunar orbiters have revealed spectral features consistent with the presence of OH or H2O on the lunar surface. Analyses of data from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper spectrometer onboard the Chandryaan-1 spacecraft have suggested that OH/H2O is recycled on diurnal timescales and persists only at high latitudes. However, the spatial distribution and temporal variability of the OH/H2O, as well as its source, remain uncertain. Here we incorporate ...[more]

PMID: 29520302

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Project description:This report summarizes observations of returned Apollo rocks and soils, lunar surface images, orbital observations, and experimental impacts related to the erosion and comminution of rocks exposed at the lunar surface. The objective is to develop rigorous criteria for the recognition of impact processes that assist in distinguishing "impact" from other potential erosional processes, particularly thermal fatigue, which has recently been advocated specifically for asteroids. Impact in rock is a process that is centrally to bilaterally symmetric, resulting in highly crushed, high-albedo, quasicircular depressions surrounded by volumetrically prominent spall zones. Containing central glass-lined pits in many cases, such features provide distinctive evidence of impact that is not duplicated by any other process. Additional evidence of impact can include radial fracture systems in the target that emanate from the impact point and clusters of fragments that attest to the lateral acceleration and displacement of each one. It is also important to note that impact produces a wide variety of fragment shapes that might totally overlap with those produced by thermal fatigue; we consider fragment shape to be an unreliable criterion for either process. The stochastic nature of the impact process will result in exponential survival times of surface rocks; that is, rock destruction initially is relatively efficient, but it is followed by ever increasing surface times for the last rock remnants. Thermal fatigue, however, is essentially a thermal-equilibrium process. The corresponding distribution of survival times should be much more peaked in comparison, presumably Gaussian, and diagnostically different from that due to impact. Given the abundance of evidence that has been gleaned from returned Apollo rocks and soils, it is surprising how little has been learned about the impact process from the photography of rocks and boulders taken by the astronauts on the lunar surface. This suggests that it will require rocks and soils returned from asteroids to evaluate the relative roles of thermal versus impact-triggered rock erosion, particularly when both processes are likely to be operating.

Dataset Information

Widespread distribution of OH/H2O on the lunar surface inferred from spectral data.

Publications

Widespread distribution of OH/H<sub>2</sub>O on the lunar surface inferred from spectral data.

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