[meteorite-list] SMART-1 Views Glushko Crater on the Moon

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Sep 1 12:36:15 2005
Message-ID: <200509011634.j81GXxc24372_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEMXY2A5QCE_0.html

SMART-1 views Glushko crater on the Moon
European Space Agency
30 August 2005

This image, taken by the Advanced Moon Micro-Imager Experiment (AMIE) on
board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows Glushko impact crater on the Moon.
 
AMIE obtained this image from a distance of about 1600 kilometres, with
a resolution of 150 metres per pixel. The field of view of this image is
80 kilometres.

The crater is located at 8.4? North, 77.6? West and has a diameter of 43
kilometres. The crater is attached to the western rim of Olbers crater
was previously designated 'Olbers A' before being renamed in honour of
Valentin Petrovitch Glushko, a Russian rocket scientist, by the
International Astronomical Union. It is very close to the western limb
as seen from Earth.

This crater possesses a relatively high albedo and is the focus of a
prominent ray system that extends in all directions across the nearby
surface. Very clear impact features indicate that it is very young,
unusual for this size of crater (compared to the 800-million year old
Copernicus crater). It is possible to see a sharp impact wall and rim,
unaffected by erosion (by later impacts). In the inner part of the rim,
terraces and wrinkles correspond to collapsed material.

Signatures of ejecta include a blanket surrounding the crater, but also
fine radial rays. For this size of crater, the ejecta layer does not
seem thick enough to swamp nearby features. In the centre of the crater,
there is a rough surface, in morphological terms somewhere in between
the smooth "bowl" shape seen in smaller craters, and the defined central
peaks in craters larger than 60 kilometres.

"SMART-1 data can help to pinpoint the physical signatures of excavation
and transformation occurring during impact events," says ESA's SMART-1
Project Scientist Bernard Foing. "The Moon can be used as geological
laboratory to study those impact processes, in comparison with craters
on Earth, Mars and elsewhere in the Solar System, or with theoretical
explosive simulations."
 
For more information:
 
Bernard H. Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist
E-mail: bernard.foing _at_ esa.int
Received on Thu 01 Sep 2005 12:33:59 PM PDT