Earthviews: Ohio Lunar Halo, from September

John Chumack, East Dayton, Ohio, September 30, 2012 [USRA].

Among the great pile of neglected posts set aside as we busied ourselves with a project requiring all our attention in recent weeks was an Earth Science Picture of the Day (EPOD) capturing the glory of our large natural satellite two days after September's Harvest Moon in the skies southeast of East Dayton, Ohio. 

The original (linked to the thumbnail at left) carries either the dusk's or the cities city's sodium vapor street lights, a combination of factors adding red to the thin, relatively high-altitude ice crystals along a southeast line of sight.

We reproduced the image here, cropped and in black and white, in hope of illustrating the wispy contacts and secondary refractions more easily seen by naked eye.

Photographer John Chumack wrote, "Because Mother Nature is sometimes surprising, I always go out at look at the night sky before I go to bed, even if the forecast calls for cloudy skies."

"From the Earth to the Moon"

Still capture from "From the Earth to the Moon," produced by David Kring, CLSE, NLSI, LPSI.

I have often argued that the Moon is the best and most accessible place in the solar system for robotic and human assets to address fundamentally important scientific questions while simultaneously providing an opportunity to expand our technological capabilities. 

To remind ourselves of the opportunities on the Moon, the Center for Lunar Science and Exploration team has created a brief (3 minute) video with scenes so dramatic you may find yourself reaching out to pick up a rock and becoming restless for a chance to walk among lunar peaks.

The video and soundtrack "From the Earth to the Moon"
(http://www.lpi.usra.edu/nlsi/moonVideo/)

*       Provides an inspirational view of the lunar surface, which humans have not visited since 1972, despite being the best and most accessible place in the solar system to explore the fundamental principles of our origins;
*       Highlights vast portions of the lunar surface that have yet to be explored; and
*       Demonstrates how new images are revealing dramatic details of future landing sites suitable for both robotic and human missions.

I encourage you to download the HD version of the video (from the bottom of that website - cross-linked at the bottom of this post) to fully marvel at this tour of the lunar surface.  I also note that we have intentionally produced a few scenes with a patchwork of images of different resolutions to illustrate the additional detail that LRO has provided.

David A. Kring, Ph.D.
Center for Lunar Science & Exploration

Options for download

Downloads can be streamed by clicking on the options below.  For best viewing, however, you may want to right click, save the link to your own computer, and then play the file from your computer

Quicktime (HD 1080p)
Windows Media (HD 720p)
iPhone 3gs/iPod video
iPhone 4/iPad

NLSI team sheds light on 'late heavy bombardment'

Tentative 'hard' evidence of 'late heavy bombardment' and lunar cataclysm surmised by NLSI team may have resulted from a shift in the positions of the outer planets "late" in the early history of our star system's formation, throwing smaller rocky airless bodies into new trajectories and raining into the inner solar system. Post-Lunar Cataclysm diagram of the Solar System [LPI/Marchi/Bottke/Kring/Morbidelli].

A team of NLSI researchers have discovered that debris that caused a "lunar cataclysm" on the Moon 4 billion years ago struck it at much higher speeds than those that made the most ancient craters. The scientists found evidence supporting this scenario by examining the history of crater formation on the Moon.

During Earth's earliest days, our planet and others in the inner solar system, including the Moon, experienced repeated impacts from debris that formed the building blocks of the planets. Over time, as material was swept up and incorporated into the inner planets, the rate of impacts decreased. Then, roughly 4 billion years ago, a second wave of impacts appears to have taken place, with lunar projectiles hitting at much higher speeds. This increase could reflect the origin of the debris, where main belt asteroids were dislodged and sent into the inner solar system by shifts in the orbits of the giant planets.

The team is composed of Simone Marchi, an NLSI postdoctoral fellow, William Bottke, the NLSI Team Lead at Southwest Research Institute, Columbia, Md., David Kring, the NLSI Team Lead at USRA's Lunar and Planetary Institute in Houston, and Alessandro Morbidelli from the Observatoire de la Cote d’Azur, France. Their research paper, “On the Onset of the Lunar Cataclysm as Recorded in its Ancient Crater Populations,” was recently published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

Nectaris basin, surrounding impacts of the same age and
size may have formed from progenitors traveling at a
higher velocity than elsewhere [NASA/LMMP].

The scientists analyzed digital maps of the lunar surface to learn about its history. Their analysis shows that craters formed near the 860 km diameter Nectaris impact basin were created by projectiles hitting twice as fast as those found on more ancient terrains. This was represented by a subtle shift in crater sizes, with the crater themselves thirty to forty percent larger on average than those found in comparable populations with older craters. The scientists believe this can be best explained by an increase in the velocities of the projectiles that produced the younger craters.

The increase in velocities may indicate a change in the solar system when the craters were created. The analysis supports the "lunar cataclysm" hypothesis that the brief pulse of impacting objects 4 billion years ago was due to gravitational disturbances caused by the reorganization of the giant planets as their orbits changed. Nectaris, a crater close to the Apollo 16 landing site, appears to have recorded the spike in asteroid impacts during the "lunar cataclysm."

Determining the magnitude and duration of any impact cataclysm and testing that hypothesis is a top science priority for future exploration of the Moon, according to Scientific Context for the Exploration of the Moon  (2007) by the National Research Council's Space Studies Board.

When Apollo astronauts gathered rock samples from the Moon, many samples had ages dating back 3.9 to 4 billion years ago, suggesting an enhanced pulse of bombardment. If a bombardment of asteroids hit the Moon as theorized, there could be indicators left on the lunar surface that would help validate the theory. Detailed mapping by the United States Geological Survey has previously identified small regions of the lunar surface that might contain clues about the bombardment. The team re-studied those ancient surfaces and measured the sizes of the impact craters using new data obtained from the Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter, an instrument on NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) currently orbiting around the Moon.

“This is an exciting time for lunar research with LRO and other spacecraft providing so much new data,” said lead author Simone Marchi. “Collaborating with scientists of different disciplines allowed us to link these observational data to dynamical models to put new constraints on solar system history.”

The inferred increase in velocity seems to have occurred after the Moon’s largest impact basin was produced, the 2,500-kilometer-diameter South Pole-Aitken Basin, but before the formation of the largest lava-filled impact basins on the lunar nearside, visible from backyards around the world.

“It is fascinating that the surface of our own Moon records evidence of orbital changes in Jupiter and Saturn that took place so long ago,” said NLSI Director Yvonne Pendleton.

The onset of the lunar cataclysm as recorded in its ancient crater populations
Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volumes 325–326, 1 April 2012, Pages 27-38
Simone Marchi, William F. Bottke, David A. Kring, Alessandro Morbidelli

View Abstract 

Scientists Detect Dramatic Shift in the Energy of Impacting
Asteroids that Pummeled the Ancient Earth and Moon
Dr. Simone Marchi, NLSI Postdoctoral Fellow (USRA, February 27, 2012)

USRA EPOD: "Paper Moon"

From Lunar Pioneer 7

A Gibbous 'Paper Moon,' Earth Science Picture of the Day, October 7, 2011, projected through the lens of an 80 cm (31.5 in), f/8 telescope onto a piece of tissue paper, instead of using an eyepiece. This interesting projection allows many observers, rather than just a single viewer, to see the image coming out of the telescope. It also nicely demonstrates the real field of view of a telescope, which is larger than what an eyepiece can cover. Photo taken on August 18, 2011 from Casa del Romano, Italy [Martin Dietzel & Mario Sämisch/EPOD/USRA].

Paper Moon

LPI: Postdoctoral Researcher in Petrology of Planetary Materials

The Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI), part of the Universities Space Research Association (USRA), invites applications for a postdoctoral fellowship in the petrology of planetary materials.

The successful candidate will work with Dr. Allan Treiman in NASA-funded efforts, focusing on planetary crusts and magmas, and their volatiles constituents; target materials include lunar highlands rocks, Martian meteorites, and terrestrial analogs. These efforts focus on planetary samples, starting with analyses by optical microscopy and electron microprobe; other instruments are available at nearby Johnson Space Center or with external collaborators. The candidate will be encouraged to design and conduct their own research in planetary science, propose for external funding, participate in grant review panels and analysis groups, and become involved with spacecraft missions.

The successful candidate will have a recent Ph.D. in petrology or geochemistry; experience with planetary materials is helpful, but not required. The position would be for two years, with possible extension to a third year. Review of candidates will begin on November 15, 2011, with a hiring decision as soon as possible thereafter. Further information can be found on our website: http://www.lpi.usra.edu/.

The Universities Space Research Association is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Accompanying position documentation (PDF)

Opportunities for postdoctoral researchers in lunar science

The Universities Space Research Association's Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) invites applications for lunar science and exploration postdoctoral fellowships. The opportunities include research in:

Lunar Surface Geology and Remote Sensing - Primarily using new LRO data and integrating it with existing lunar data to evaluate processes associated with impact cratering and/or planetary differentiation. Experience with orbital remote sensing methods, photometry of lunar materials, and photogeology of lunar or lunar-like terrains is preferred.

Experimental and/or Analytical Petrology and Geochemistry - Primarily using Apollo and lunar meteorite samples (or synthetic analogues of them) to evaluate processes associated with impact cratering and/or planetary differentiation. Experience with electron microprobe, ion microprobe, and/or LA-ICPMS techniques is preferred.

Modeling of Impact Cratering Processes - Primarily using hydrocodes and relevant analytical techniques to evaluate different types of cratering processes on the Moon, to model specific crater or basin-forming events, and potentially guide future exploration scenarios.

The successful candidates should be able to work independently, although encouraged to take advantage of the tremendous lunar-related expertise in the Houston area. The successful candidate will be a member of the LPI-JSC Center for Lunar Science and Exploration, which is one of the core teams within the NASA Lunar Science Institute.

USRA offers a competitive salary and benefits package. If there are any questions about the science involved in the position, please contact Dr. David A. Kring. Interested applicants should submit a curriculum vita with list of publications, a two to three page statement of research interests, and a list of three references to resume@lpi.usra.edu. There is no firm application deadline, although a review of applications will begin August 15, 2011.

The Universities Space Research Association is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

David A. Kring, Ph.D.
Center for Lunar Science & Exploration
USRA - Lunar and Planetary Institute
3600 Bay Area Blvd.
Houston, TX 77058-1113
(281) 486-2119

Research publications:
http://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/research.shtml
Email: kring@lpi.usra.edu

Background: LPI Teams with NLSI

The virtual NLSI, NASA's Lunar Science Institute, and the January 10 announcement naming the first of seven teams collaborating on the October 2011 LADEE lunar dust explorer has been followed up by a flurry of institutional press releases. The vital and essential Lunar and Planetary Institute, on the verge of celebrating its 40th anniversary, is no exception.

COLUMBIA, Jan. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is proud to announce NASA's recent selection of a team of scientists from USRA's Lunar and Planetary Institute (LPI) and the Johnson Space Center (JSC) to be one of seven initial members of NASA's Lunar Science Institute (NLSI). The NLSI, a new organization managed by NASA Ames Research Center and designed to supplement and extend existing NASA lunar science programs, is modeled on NASA's Astrobiology Institute and features teams across the US working to help lead research activities related to lunar exploration goals.

The LPI/JSC team is lead by Dr. David Kring, visiting scientist for the Lunar Exploration Initiative at the LPI and recognized expert in the planetary sciences. The team will use the latest technology to determine if a storm of bombarding asteroids and comets resurfaced the Earth and moon 3.5 to 4 billion years ago and will investigate whether any bombardment may have affected the origin and early evolution of life on Earth. The LPI/JSC efforts have a strong university component as faculty and students at the University of Houston, University of Arizona, University of Maryland, The University of Notre Dame and Rice University will be directly involved in the scientific research and the team has organized a consortium of 12 universities throughout Texas to provide educational opportunities for their students.

"NASA has created a unique opportunity for our team to integrate lunar science with the human exploration program," said Kring. "Our program will help drive the growth of our nation's technical capabilities, while simultaneously creating paths of opportunity for students interested in cutting-edge space science."

Most of the LPI/JSC team's work at JSC will be conducted by the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science Directorate, which will be integrated with the Office for Lunar and Planetary Exploration in the Constellation Systems Program Office. "I am delighted with the opportunity to be part of one the initial member teams of the agency's Lunar Science Institute," said Eileen Stansbery, director of Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science at JSC. "The NLSI is a very important initiative for NASA's future. Our research effort builds on our respective institution's lunar science capabilities and will provide important input for the Constellation Program."

About the LPI

The Lunar and Planetary Institute, a division of the Universities Space Research Association, was established during the Apollo missions to foster international collaboration and to serve as a repository for information gathered during the early years of the space program. Today the LPI is an intellectual leader in lunar and planetary research.

About USRA

The Universities Space Research Association, established in 1969 by the National Academy of Sciences, is a private, nonprofit consortium of 102 universities offering advanced degrees in space- and aeronautics-related disciplines. USRA's mission is to conduct leading-edge research, develop innovative technologies, promote education and policy across the breadth of space science, and operate premier science and technology facilities by involving universities, private industry and government.

SOURCE: Universities Space Research Association