Moon Images By SMART-1 |
Moon Images By SMART-1 |
Jan 20 2005, 02:45 PM
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#1
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Member Group: Members Posts: 470 Joined: 24-March 04 From: Finland Member No.: 63 |
SMART-1 is approaching its operational orbit. ESA has released some images of the Moon on this page:
http://sci.esa.int/science-e/www/object/in...fobjectid=36358 -------------------- Antti Kuosmanen
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Apr 1 2006, 09:56 PM
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#2
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Solar System Cartographer Group: Members Posts: 10164 Joined: 5-April 05 From: Canada Member No.: 227 |
The other two swirl areas are more distributed arrangements of smaller bright swirls, lacking a single feature as large and contrasty as Reiner Gamma itself. Also they are not in such open mare areas, so less visible against a rougher background.
One is in the Mare Marginis area roughly antipodal to Orientale. The second is in the Mare Ingenii area on the far side, roughly antipodal to the Imbrium basin. The antipodal arrangement is possibly related to their origin. One suggested mechanism is as follows: a large impact creates a large ejecta plume which spreads out in all directions. Eventually it closes on itself around the antipodal point. The ejecta thus is somewhat concentrated at the antipodal point. That ejecta traps the magnetic field associated with the solar wind (or maybe the contemporary lunar field) causing a magnetic anomaly. The swirls are associated with both the ejecta and the magnetic anomaly. I don't pretend to understand the mechanism in detail. The spot is a flaw in the CCD (or similar artifact). It's really at the same pixel location in every image. Phil -------------------- ... because the Solar System ain't gonna map itself.
Also to be found posting similar content on https://mastodon.social/@PhilStooke Maps for download (free PD: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/comm...Cartography.pdf NOTE: everything created by me which I post on UMSF is considered to be in the public domain (NOT CC, public domain) |
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Apr 1 2006, 10:14 PM
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#3
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Senior Member Group: Members Posts: 2488 Joined: 17-April 05 From: Glasgow, Scotland, UK Member No.: 239 |
Phil:
Thanks for that. Any idea whether there have been searches at other - eg farside - antipodes to big impacts? Bob Shaw -------------------- Remember: Time Flies like the wind - but Fruit Flies like bananas!
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