1. Lunar impact basins and crustal heterogeneity: new western limb and far side data from Galileo
- Author
-
Belton, Michael J.S., Head, III, James W., Pieters, Carle M., Greeley, Ronald, McEwen, Alfred S., Neukum, Gerhard, Klaasen, Kenneth P., Anger, Clifford D., Carr, Michael H., Chapman, Clark R., Davies, Merton E., Fanale, Fraser P., Gierasch, Peter J., Greenberg, Richard, Ingersoll, Andrew P., Johnson, Torrence, Paczkowski, Brian, Pilcher, Carl B., and Veverka, Joseph
- Subjects
Galileo (Space probe) -- Observations ,Lunar geology -- Research ,Science and technology ,Observations ,Research - Abstract
Multispectral images of the lunar western limb and far side obtained from Galileo reveal the compositional nature of several prominent lunar features and provide new information on lunar evolution. The data reveal that the ejecta from the Orientale impact basin (900 kilometers in diameter) lying outside the Cordillera Mountains was excavated from the crust, not hte mantle, and covers pre-Orientale terrain that consisted of both highland materials and relatively large expenses of ancient mare basalts. The inside of the far side South Pole--Aitken basinc (>2000 kilometers in diameter) has low albedo, red color, and a relatively high abundance of iron- and magnesium-rich materials. These features suggest that the impact may have penetrated into the deep crust or lunar mantle or that the basin contains ancient mare basalts that were later covered by highlands ejecta., THE GALILEO SPACECRAFT ENCOUNTERED THE EARTH-moon system in December 1990 in the first of two flybys that are part of a sequence of planetary gravity assists that will deliver the [...]
- Published
- 1992