Investigation of Lunar Crustal Magnetic Fields, Surface Properties, and Impacts

Other

Scientific paper

Rate now

  [ 0.00 ] – not rated yet Voters 0   Comments 0

Details

5420 Impact Phenomena (Includes Cratering), 5440 Magnetic Fields And Magnetism, 5470 Surface Materials And Properties, 6250 Moon (1221)

Scientific paper

The Magnetometer/Electron Reflectometer experiment onboard Lunar Prospector (LP) produced a global map of lunar crustal magnetic fields. The most prominent features of this map are weak surface fields (<0.2 nT) within large impact basins and strong fields (>40 nT) diametrically opposite to these same sites, thus showing the importance of basin forming processes in producing the current distribution of the lunar crustal magnetic fields. The only other clear-cut global correlation is between surface magnetic fields and albedo swirls of the Reiner Gamma class, although recently, the Cayley formation has been shown to correlate with strong surface magnetic fields, suggesting that some Imbrian impact ejecta are magnetized. To conduct a systematic global search for other correlations, we performed cluster analysis of the surface magnetic field intensity, surface topography, and free-air gravity anomalies. This analysis yields five distinct clusters. The two dominant clusters reproduce the strongly magnetic antipodal zones and the previously known correlations between weak surface magnetic fields and impact basins with their associated topographic and gravitational signatures. The remaining three clusters cover the part of the Moon away from the basin impact sites and their antipodes. These clusters comprise strong (>20 nT) magnetic anomalies not antipodal to large impact basins and reveal associations with albedo features and impact ejecta. These groups are also distinguished by their gravitational component.

No associations

LandOfFree

Say what you really think

Search LandOfFree.com for scientists and scientific papers. Rate them and share your experience with other people.

Rating

Investigation of Lunar Crustal Magnetic Fields, Surface Properties, and Impacts does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this scientific paper.

If you have personal experience with Investigation of Lunar Crustal Magnetic Fields, Surface Properties, and Impacts, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Investigation of Lunar Crustal Magnetic Fields, Surface Properties, and Impacts will most certainly appreciate the feedback.

Rate now

     

Profile ID: LFWR-SCP-O-1891773

  Search
All data on this website is collected from public sources. Our data reflects the most accurate information available at the time of publication.