LRO-LAMP observations of the LCROSS impact plume.
On 9 October 2009, the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) sent a kinetic impactor to strike Cabeus crater, on a mission to search for water ice and other volatiles expected to be trapped in lunar polar soils. The Lyman Alpha Mapping Project (LAMP) ultraviolet spectrograph onboard the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) observed the plume generated by the LCROSS impact as far-ultraviolet emissions from the fluorescence of sunlight by molecular hydrogen and carbon monoxide, plus resonantly scattered sunlight from atomic mercury, with contributions from calcium and magnesium. The observed light curve is well simulated by the expansion of a vapor cloud at a temperature of ~1000 kelvin, containing ~570 kilograms (kg) of carbon monoxide, ~140 kg of molecular hydrogen, ~160 kg of calcium, ~120 kg of mercury, and ~40 kg of magnesium.
Gladstone
G Randall
GR
Southwest Research Institute, San Antonio, TX 78238, USA. rgladstone@swri.edu
Hurley
Dana M
DM
Retherford
Kurt D
KD
Feldman
Paul D
PD
Pryor
Wayne R
WR
Chaufray
Jean-Yves
JY
Versteeg
Maarten
M
Greathouse
Thomas K
TK
Steffl
Andrew J
AJ
Throop
Henry
H
Parker
Joel Wm
JW
Kaufmann
David E
DE
Egan
Anthony F
AF
Davis
Michael W
MW
Slater
David C
DC
Mukherjee
Joey
J
Miles
Paul F
PF
Hendrix
Amanda R
AR
Colaprete
Anthony
A
Stern
S Alan
SA
D002248:Carbon Monoxide; D005118:Extraterrestrial Environment; D006859:Hydrogen; D016081:Moon; D013057:Spectrum Analysis
D002248:Carbon Monoxide; D006859:Hydrogen