Diviner Lunar Radiometer observations of the LCROSS impact.
The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Diviner instrument detected a thermal emission signature 90 seconds after the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) Centaur impact and on two subsequent orbits. The impact heated a region of 30 to 200 square meters to at least 950 kelvin, providing a sustained heat source for the sublimation of up to ~300 kilograms of water ice during the 4 minutes of LCROSS post-impact observations. Diviner visible observations constrain the mass of the sunlit ejecta column to be ~10(-6) to 10(-5) kilograms per square meter, which is consistent with LCROSS estimates used to derive the relative abundance of the ice within the regolith.
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095, USA. phayne@ucla.edu
Paul O
PO
Hayne
Benjamin T
BT
Greenhagen
Marc C
MC
Foote
Matthew A
MA
Siegler
Ashwin R
AR
Vasavada
David A
DA
Paige
D007053:Ice; D016081:Moon; D013055:Spectrophotometry, Infrared; D014835:Volatilization
D007053:Ice