Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity
NASA's GRAIL mission employed twin spacecraft in polar orbits around the Moon to measure the lunar gravity field at unprecedentedly high accuracy and resolution. The low spacecraft altitude in the extended mission enables the detection of small-scale surface or subsurface features. We analyzed...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Published: |
American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2018
|
| Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118913 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3686-6442 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2652-8017 |
| _version_ | 1826217934111899648 |
|---|---|
| author | Chappaz, Loic Sood, Rohan Howell, Kathleen C. Milbury, Colleen Melosh IV, Henry Jay Blair, David M. Zuber, Maria |
| author2 | Haystack Observatory |
| author_facet | Haystack Observatory Chappaz, Loic Sood, Rohan Howell, Kathleen C. Milbury, Colleen Melosh IV, Henry Jay Blair, David M. Zuber, Maria |
| author_sort | Chappaz, Loic |
| collection | MIT |
| description | NASA's GRAIL mission employed twin spacecraft in polar orbits around the Moon to measure the lunar gravity field at unprecedentedly high accuracy and resolution. The low spacecraft altitude in the extended mission enables the detection of small-scale surface or subsurface features. We analyzed these data for evidence of empty lava tubes beneath the lunar maria. We developed two methods, gradiometry and cross correlation, to isolate the target signal of long, narrow, sinuous mass deficits from a host of other features present in the GRAIL data. Here we report the discovery of several strong candidates that are either extensions of known lunar rilles, collocated with the recently discovered “skylight” caverns, or underlying otherwise unremarkable surfaces. Owing to the spacecraft polar orbits, our techniques are most sensitive to east-west trending near-surface structures and empty lava tubes with minimum widths of several kilometers, heights of hundreds of meters, and lengths of tens of kilometers. |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:11:22Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/118913 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T17:11:22Z |
| publishDate | 2018 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1189132022-10-03T11:02:38Z Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity Chappaz, Loic Sood, Rohan Howell, Kathleen C. Milbury, Colleen Melosh IV, Henry Jay Blair, David M. Zuber, Maria Haystack Observatory Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences Melosh IV, Henry Jay Blair, David M. Zuber, Maria NASA's GRAIL mission employed twin spacecraft in polar orbits around the Moon to measure the lunar gravity field at unprecedentedly high accuracy and resolution. The low spacecraft altitude in the extended mission enables the detection of small-scale surface or subsurface features. We analyzed these data for evidence of empty lava tubes beneath the lunar maria. We developed two methods, gradiometry and cross correlation, to isolate the target signal of long, narrow, sinuous mass deficits from a host of other features present in the GRAIL data. Here we report the discovery of several strong candidates that are either extensions of known lunar rilles, collocated with the recently discovered “skylight” caverns, or underlying otherwise unremarkable surfaces. Owing to the spacecraft polar orbits, our techniques are most sensitive to east-west trending near-surface structures and empty lava tubes with minimum widths of several kilometers, heights of hundreds of meters, and lengths of tens of kilometers. 2018-11-06T15:27:20Z 2018-11-06T15:27:20Z 2017-01 2016-10 2018-10-05T14:56:24Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 00948276 http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118913 Chappaz, Loic, Rohan Sood, Henry J. Melosh, Kathleen C. Howell, David M. Blair, Colleen Milbury, and Maria T. Zuber. “Evidence of Large Empty Lava Tubes on the Moon Using GRAIL Gravity.” Geophysical Research Letters 44, no. 1 (January 13, 2017): 105–112. https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3686-6442 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2652-8017 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016GL071588 Geophysical Research Letters Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) Other repository |
| spellingShingle | Chappaz, Loic Sood, Rohan Howell, Kathleen C. Milbury, Colleen Melosh IV, Henry Jay Blair, David M. Zuber, Maria Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity |
| title | Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity |
| title_full | Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity |
| title_fullStr | Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity |
| title_full_unstemmed | Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity |
| title_short | Evidence of large empty lava tubes on the Moon using GRAIL gravity |
| title_sort | evidence of large empty lava tubes on the moon using grail gravity |
| url | http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/118913 https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3686-6442 https://orcid.org/0000-0003-2652-8017 |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT chappazloic evidenceoflargeemptylavatubesonthemoonusinggrailgravity AT soodrohan evidenceoflargeemptylavatubesonthemoonusinggrailgravity AT howellkathleenc evidenceoflargeemptylavatubesonthemoonusinggrailgravity AT milburycolleen evidenceoflargeemptylavatubesonthemoonusinggrailgravity AT meloshivhenryjay evidenceoflargeemptylavatubesonthemoonusinggrailgravity AT blairdavidm evidenceoflargeemptylavatubesonthemoonusinggrailgravity AT zubermaria evidenceoflargeemptylavatubesonthemoonusinggrailgravity |