Template for the Terrestrial Planets: The Moon (Invited)

Mathematics – Logic

Scientific paper

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[5400] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets, [5410] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Composition, [5455] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Origin And Evolution

Scientific paper

On the Moon, the geologic record and early history of the crust and mantle have been preserved for more than 4 Gyr. Ancient large craters and basins provide access to the interior; a continuous rain of smaller event, micrometeorites, and plasma record the recent history of the Earth-Moon environment. Such a record makes this small differentiated body an invaluable asset for understanding processes affecting all terrestrial planets. An international armada of spacecraft have recently orbited the Moon with advanced sensors to measure its physical properties: SELENE/Kaguya [JAXA], ChangE [CNSA], Chandrayaan-1 [ISRO], and LRO/LCROSS [NASA]. The data from these modern robotic missions are being calibrated, validated, and distributed and new results and insights are appearing throughout the peer-reviewed scientific literature. From these new data, the Moon indeed continues to surprise us. We recognize that the large basins provide windows into early crustal processes and we have identified direct compositional products of the early Magma Ocean. We have uncovered secondary deep magmatic products of the lunar crust, identified new rock types, and characterized basin impact melt that was possibly derived from the mantle. We now know hydrated materials from the interior exist far more abundantly than suspected, water and hydrated materials are currently widespread across the surface of the Moon, and some polar areas appear to be locations where hydrous materials are concentrated. The Moon provides a template to read the record of interplay between geochemistry, petrology and geophysics for an evolving planetary body early in solar system history.

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