Mathematics – Logic
Scientific paper
Sep 2008
adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2008dps....40.5702p&link_type=abstract
American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #40, #57.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 40, p.501
Mathematics
Logic
Scientific paper
Fundamental questions remain regarding the lunar interior, e.g.: Why did the Moon apparently cool so early? Why does the Moon have an asymmetric structure (nearside/farside)? What is the thickness of the lunar crust? How much of crustal variability is due to variable melting vs. impact redistribution? How big are impact basins and how deep did they excavate and thermally perturb the mantle? What was the temporal evolution of magmatism and brecciation? Did the mantle overturn subsequent to magma ocean solidification? How laterally heterogeneous is the lunar mantle? Does the Moon have a seismic discontinuity in the mantle? Does the Moon have a core? Does the Moon have a liquid outer core? Did the Moon have a core dynamo? Some of these questions will be at least partially answered in the next several years through new spacecraft investigations such as the GRAIL mission, which will map the lunar gravity field to unprecedented spatial resolution and accuracy. Furthermore, a long-lived, multi-station seismic network is also essential for understanding interior structure. Recent analyses of Apollo seismic data call into question the existence of the mantle discontinuity at 500-km depth, and the thickness of the lunar crust beneath the Apollo 12 and 14 landing sites now has multiple estimates. However, there is still a great deal that can be learned from existing lunar data sets. One productive approach would construct a set of self-consistent models that describe the coupled petrological-thermal evolution of the Moon. Such an investigation involves the high-level marriage of detailed petrological information from samples of the lunar crust and possibly mantle; of models that can predict accurately lunar solidi, liquidi, and equilibrium compositions; and of sophisticated thermal models that accurately incorporate the physics of melting and melt migration.
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