Categories: Moon

SMART-1 Links Geologic and Volcanic Activity on the Moon

ESA’s SMART-1 spacecraft was purposely crashed into the Moon on September 3, 2006. But before it died, it analyzed the Moon in incredible detail. One of the key questions it’s attempting to help scientists answer: how were surface features formed? By putting together data from both SMART-1 and NASA’s Clementine spacecraft, scientists have detailed views of some of the fine details that will help answer these questions.

Most of the Moon’s surface features – all those big craters – were created approximately 350-750 million years after the formation of the Moon, during a period called the Lunar Late Heavy Bombardment period. Almost all of the large lunar basins 300 km or larger were created during that period. And then after that, many of these basins were filled in by lava from volcanic activity.

By combining images from SMART-1 and Clementine, scientists can now see many of the fine geological structures, using SMART-1’s AMIE micro-camera. During its orbits, SMART-1 passed very close to the surface of the Moon, and took low-elevation images that revealed very fine scale geological features that had been undetected before now.

One example of this is the Humorum basin; a nice, round compact basin that was created by a simple impact event. The spacecraft data shows a thin crust and mass concentration within a small area.

This is different from the Procellarum basin. This region is a large, extended, complex basin that is moderately thick and has no mass concentration. It might have been formed by faulting associated with an adjacent crater, and not a gigantic impact.

Each lunar crater has a story to tell. The SMART-1 data is helping scientists understand when the Moon was volcanically active, and how and when the lava flowed into ancient impact craters.

Original Source: EPC News Release

Fraser Cain

Fraser Cain is the publisher of Universe Today. He's also the co-host of Astronomy Cast with Dr. Pamela Gay. Here's a link to my Mastodon account.

Recent Posts

Scientists Have Figured out why Martian Soil is so Crusty

On November 26th, 2018, NASA's Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy, and Heat Transport (InSight)…

3 hours ago

Another Way to Extract Energy From Black Holes?

Black holes are incredible powerhouses, but they might generate even more energy thanks to an…

9 hours ago

Plastic Waste on our Beaches Now Visible from Space, Says New Study

According to the United Nations, the world produces about 430 million metric tons (267 U.S.…

1 day ago

Future Space Telescopes Could be Made From Thin Membranes, Unrolled in Space to Enormous Size

As we saw with JWST, it's difficult and expensive to launch large telescope apertures, relying…

1 day ago

Voyager 1 is Forced to Rely on its Low Power Radio

Voyager 1 was launched waaaaaay back in 1977. I would have been 4 years old…

2 days ago

Webb Confirms a Longstanding Galaxy Model

The spectra of distant galaxies shows that dying sun-like stars, not supernovae, enrich galaxies the…

2 days ago