LRO-Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) Observations of the GRAIL Impact Plumes
Abstract
The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) UV spectrograph on the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) was positioned to directly view the expanding gas plumes from the two GRAIL spacecraft impacts on 17 December 2012. LAMP detected resonantly scattered emissions from Hg and H atoms in the sunlit regions of these plumes. The spectral, spatial, and light-curve analyses used in these gas detections are consistent with previous LAMP observations of the LCROSS impact into the permanently shadowed region of Cabeus crater. LAMP's detection of atomic H by Lyman-α emission at the Moon (a first) was facilitated by pointing at the nightside surface to eliminate sky background noise. Volatile transport of Hg and H species is known to concentrate them near the poles, and in the context of LRO-Diviner temperature measurements of these high-latitude (75.6° N) impact sites the LAMP detections address this process.
- Publication:
-
AAS/Division for Planetary Sciences Meeting Abstracts #45
- Pub Date:
- October 2013
- Bibcode:
- 2013DPS....4510708R