A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area
-
Published:2024-06-04
Issue:11
Volume:16
Page:2014
-
ISSN:2072-4292
-
Container-title:Remote Sensing
-
language:en
-
Short-container-title:Remote Sensing
Author:
Wang Yexin1ORCID, Nan Jing12, Zhao Chenxu12ORCID, Xie Bin12ORCID, Gou Sheng3, Yue Zongyu34ORCID, Di Kaichang14ORCID, Zhang Hong5, Deng Xiangjin5, Sun Shujuan16
Affiliation:
1. State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science, Aerospace Information Research Institute, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100101, China 2. University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China 3. Key Laboratory of Earth and Planetary Physics, Institute of Geology and Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100029, China 4. Center for Excellence in Comparative Planetology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Hefei 230026, China 5. Beijing Institute of Spacecraft System Engineering, China Academy of Space Technology, Beijing 100094, China 6. School of Architecture and Civil Engineering, Chengdu University, Chengdu 610106, China
Abstract
Chang’e-6 (CE-6) is the first sample-return mission from the lunar farside and will be launched in May of 2024. The landing area is in the south of the Apollo basin inside the South Pole Aitken basin. Statistics and analyses of impact craters in the landing area are essential to support safe landing and geologic studies. In particular, the crater size–frequency distribution information of the landing area is critical to understanding the provenance of the CE-6 lunar samples to be returned and can be used to verify and refine the lunar chronology model by combining with the radioisotope ages of the relevant samples. In this research, a digital orthophoto map (DOM) mosaic with resolution of 3 m/pixel of the CE-6 landing area was generated from the 743 Narrow Angle Camera of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. Based on the DOM, craters were extracted by an automated method and checked manually. A total of 770,731 craters were extracted in the whole area of 246 km × 135 km, 511,484 craters of which were within the mare area. Systematic analyses of the crater distribution, completeness, spatial density, and depth-to-diameter ratio were conducted. Geologic model age estimation was carried out in the mare area that was divided into three geologic units according to the TiO2 abundance. The result showed that the east part of the mare had the oldest model age of μ3.27−0.045+0.036 Ga, and the middle part of the mare had the youngest model age of μ2.49−0.073+0.072 Ga. The crater catalogue and the surface model age analysis results were used to support topographic and geologic analyses of the pre-selected landing area of the CE-6 mission before the launch and will contribute to further scientific researches after the lunar samples are returned to Earth.
Funder
National Key Research and Development Program of China Strategic Priority Research Program of the Chinese Academy of Sciences Open Fund of State Key Laboratory of Remote Sensing Science
Reference39 articles.
1. Smith, J.V., Anderson, A.T., Newton, R.C., Olsen, E.J., Crewe, A.V., and Isaacson, M.S. (1970, January 5–8). Petrologic history of the moon inferred from petrography, mineralogy and petrogenesis of Apollo 11 rocks. Proceedings of the Apollo 11 Lunar Science Conference, Houston, TX, USA. 2. Wood, J.A., Dickey, J.J.S., Marvin, U.B., and Powell, B.N. (1970, January 5–8). Lunar anorthosites and a geophysical model of the moon. Proceedings of the Apollo 11 Lunar Science Conference, Houston, TX, USA. 3. Origin of the Moon-The Collision Hypothesis;Stevenson;Annu. Rev. Earth Planet Sci.,1987 4. A dry lunar mantle reservoir for young mare basalts of Chang’e-5;Hu;Nature,2021 5. Neukum, G. (1983). Meteoriten Bombardement und Datierung Planetarer Oberflächen (Meteorite Bombardment and Dating of Planetary Surfaces), Ludwig-Maximilians University.
|
|