Abstract
Background: The Moon is mostly covered by the regolith, a layer of fragmental and unconsolidated material. This is created as a result of repeated and continuous impacts to the surface gradually creating a predominantly fine-grained layer and continually ‘gardening’ the surface1. As the Moon has no atmosphere, its surface acts as the boundary with the energetic space environment2. Therefore, cosmic rays (both galactic and solar) directly interact with this surface producing cosmogenic isotope daughter products1. This cosmogenic isotope record provides an important tool for helping to probe the evolution of the lunar regolith and crust.Materials and methods: Our study focuses on measuring cosmogenic isotopes in lunar regolith meteorites. Lunar meteorites are launched from the Moon by impacts and delivered to Earth3. These samples represent material that has been excavated from up to 3 meters within the regolith as well as material from previously unsampled terraines, including the only samples from the lunar farside4.Noble gas isotopes, chemical and petrologic will be obtained from 12 lunar regolith meteorites from the ANSMET Meteorite Collection. Scientific goal: The residence time, ejection age and and depth (i.e., shielding depth) of each meteorite will be used to help further understand the history of the regolith in areas remote from the Apollo landing sites.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Publication status | Published - 14 Mar 2013 |
| Event | Geochemistry Group Research in Progress - Open University, Milton Keynes Duration: 14 Mar 2013 → 14 Mar 2013 |
Conference
| Conference | Geochemistry Group Research in Progress |
|---|---|
| City | Open University, Milton Keynes |
| Period | 14/03/13 → 14/03/13 |
Keywords
- cosmic rays, lunar meteorites, exposure