New Insights into Aristarchus Crater with LRO LAMP Far-ultraviolet Observations

Aristarchus crater is a Copernican-age impact crater well known for its high-albedo ejecta blanket and nearby flow features rich in pyroclastic materials. The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) is a far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectrograph (57–197 nm) on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). LAMP...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Elizabeth Czajka, Kurt Retherford, Georgiana Kramer, Amanda Hendrix, Joshua Cahill, Benjamin Byron, Benjamin Greenhagen, Thomas Greathouse, Lizeth Magaña, Kathleen Mandt, Cesare Grava
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: IOP Publishing 2023-01-01
Series:The Planetary Science Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:https://doi.org/10.3847/PSJ/acdee9
Description
Summary:Aristarchus crater is a Copernican-age impact crater well known for its high-albedo ejecta blanket and nearby flow features rich in pyroclastic materials. The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) is a far-ultraviolet (FUV) spectrograph (57–197 nm) on board the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO). LAMP data identified Aristarchus crater as having a high Off-band (155–184 nm) to On-band (130–155 nm) albedo (Off/On) ratio, providing new insight into the mineral composition of the area. Previous LAMP observations of bright crater rays and lunar swirls show that regions of high Off/On-band ratios may indicate highly feldspathic compositions. In this study we use LAMP data to understand FUV compositional signatures at Aristarchus. We investigate four well-characterized regions of interest around Aristarchus crater, and we compare Off/On-band ratios at Aristarchus crater to laboratory-derived ratios of several endmembers such as anorthite and olivine. We further analyze LAMP FUV spectra alongside near-infrared spectra from the Moon Mineral Mapper (M ^3 ) on board Chandrayaan-1 to characterize the mineralogy in several regions of interest. We find that LAMP Off/On-band ratios are able to distinguish between plagioclase feldspars and minerals such as quartz and mafic-dominated compositions. The LAMP Off/On-band ratios at Aristarchus are higher than previously reported ratios for plagioclase-rich regions, suggesting that the composition is unique to Aristarchus. Spectra from LAMP and M ^3 both show that the central peak and high-albedo ejecta around Aristarchus contain shocked, possibly alkalic, plagioclase feldspar.
ISSN:2632-3338