Lunar Orbiter Photographs: Some Fundamental Observations: Preliminary study reveals details of craters, crater distributions, and the major types of terrain

High-resolution photographs returned by Orbiters II and III typically show a surface pitted with small, perfectly circular craters as much as 50 meters in diameter, some of which are strongly clustered; these are superposed on larger, generally shallower craters and must be a mixture of primary and secondary impact craters. Rough terrain is less heavily cratered but is crossed by numerous closely spaced troughs and ridges up to 3 meters high. Terraces, which commonly occur at the base of steep slopes, are also crossed by these troughs and ridges and have relatively few craters. Fresh craters-craters whose exterior slopes are covered with material different from that of the intercrater areas-are rare and are surrounded by angular blocks up to 80 meters in diameter, in varying numbers; these craters apparently undergo gradual destruction to shallow gentle depressions. The frequency of craters 100 meters and more in diameter varies widely, even on level terrain; some of the highest concentrations of craters occur on rays.     

Mariner 9 television reconnaissance of Mars and its satellites: preliminary results

At orbit insertion on 14 November 1971 the Martian surface was largely obscured by a dust haze with an extinction optical depth that ranged from near unity in the south polar region to probably greater than 2 over most of the planet. The only features clearly visible were the south polar cap, one dark, spot in Nix Olympica, and three dark spots in the Tharsis region. During the third week the atmosphere began to clear and surface visibility improved, but contrasts remained a fraction of their normal value. Each of the dark spots that apparently protrude through most of the dust-filled atmosphere has a crater or crater complex in its center. The craters are rimless and have featureless floors that, in the crater complexes, are at different levels. The largest crater within the southernmost spot is approximately 100 kilometers wide. The craters apparently were formed by subsidence and resemble terrestrial calderas. The south polar cap has a regular margin, suggsting very flat topography. Two craters outside the cap have frost on their floors; an apparent crater rim within the cap is frost free, indicating preferentia loss of frost from elevated ground. If this is so then the curvilinear streaks, which were frost covered in 1969 and are now clear of frost, may be low-relief ridges. Closeup pictures of Phobos and Deimos show that Phobos is about 25 +/-5 by 21 +/-1 kilometers and Deimos is about 13.5 +/- 2 by 12.0 +/-0.5 kilometers. Both have irregular shapes and are highly cratered, with some craters showing raised rims. The satellites are dark objects with geometric albedos of 0.05.     

Surface of young Jupiter family comet 81P/Wild 2: view from the Stardust Spacecraft

Images taken by the Stardust mission during its flyby of 81P/Wild 2 show the comet to be a 5-kilometer oblate body covered with remarkable topographic features, including unusual circular features that appear to be impact craters. The presence of high-angle slopes shows that the surface is cohesive and self-supporting. The comet does not appear to be a rubble pile, and its rounded shape is not directly consistent with the comet being a fragment of a larger body. The surface is active and yet it retains ancient terrain. Wild 2 appears to be in the early stages of its degradation phase as a small volatile-rich body in the inner solar system.     

Shock-lithification of unconsolidated rock materials

Loose quartz grains packed around chemical explosives are forced during cratering explosions into compacted, coherent masses resembling sand stone blocks found at certain meteorite craters. Sandstone-like lumps found at the Wabar (Arabia) meteorite craters are similar to these shock-lithified sands. Shock-lithification by impact may be effected on Moon as large meteorites strike surfaces covered with rubble from earlier collisions.     

Galileo encounter with 951 gaspra: first pictures of an asteroid

Galileo images of Gaspra reveal it to be an irregularly shaped object (19 by 12 by 11 kilometers) that appears to have been created by a catastrophic collisional disruption of a precursor parent body. The cratering age of the surface is about 200 million years. Subtle albedo and color variations appear to correlate with morphological features: Brighter materials are associated with craters especially along the crests of ridges, have a stronger 1-micrometer absorption, and may represent freshly excavated mafic materials; darker materials exhibiting a significantly weaker 1-micrometer absorption appear concentrated in interridge areas. One explanation of these patterns is that Gaspra is covered with a thin regolith and that some of this material has migrated downslope in some areas.     

Endogenetic craters interpreted from crater counts on the inner wall of copernicus

Collapse craters formed in terrestrial basalt flows exhibit size-frequency distributions that are similar to distributions for craters located in terraces in the inner wall of the lunar crater Copernicus. These distributions and surface morphology suggest that the interior terraces are basalt lava flows containing collapse craters as well as impact craters.     

Impact craters on venus: initial analysis from magellan

Magellan radar images of 15 percent of the planet show 135 craters of probable impact origin. Craters more than 15 km across tend to contain central peaks, multiple central peaks, and peak rings. Many craters smaller than 15 km exhibit multiple floors or appear in clusters; these phenomena are attributed to atmospheric breakup of incoming meteoroids. Additionally, the atmosphere appears to have prevented the formation of primary impact craters smaller than about 3 km and produced a deficiency in the number of craters smaller than about 25 km across. Ejecta is found at greater distances than that predicted by simple ballistic emplacement, and the distal ends of some ejecta deposits are lobate. These characteristics may represent surface flows of material initially entrained in the atmosphere. Many craters are surrounded by zones of low radar albedo whose origin may have been deformation of the surface by the shock or pressure wave associated with the incoming meteoroid. Craters are absent from several large areas such as a 5 million square kilometer region around Sappho Patera, where the most likely explanation for the dearth of craters is volcanic resurfacing. There is apparently a spectrum of surface ages on Venus ranging approximately from 0 to 800 million years, and therefore Venus must be a geologically active planet.     

Impact-induced seismic activity on asteroid 433 Eros: a surface modification process

High-resolution images of the surface of asteroid 433 Eros revealed evidence of downslope movement of a loose regolith layer, as well as the degradation and erasure of small impact craters (less than approximately 100 meters in diameter). One hypothesis to explain these observations is seismic reverberation after impact events. We used a combination of seismic and geomorphic modeling to analyze the response of regolith-covered topography, particularly craters, to impact-induced seismic shaking. Applying these results to a stochastic cratering model for the surface of Eros produced good agreement with the observed size-frequency distribution of craters, including the paucity of small craters.     

The impact cratering record on triton

Impact craters on Triton are scarce owing to the relatively recent resurfacing by icy melts. The most heavily cratered surface has a crater density about the same as the lunar maria. The transition diameter from simple to complex craters occurs at a diameter of about 11 kilometers, and the depth-diameter relationship is similar to that of other icy satellites when gravity is taken into account. The crater size-frequency distribution has a differential -3 slope (cumulative -2 slope) and is the same as that for the fresh crater population on Miranda. The most heavily cratered region is on the leading hemisphere in Triton's orbit. Triton may have a leading-trailing asymmetry in its crater population. Based primarily on the similarity of size distributions on Triton and Miranda and the relatively young surface on Triton, the source of Triton's craters is probably comets. The very peculiar size distribution of sharp craters on the "cantaloupe" terrain and other evidence suggests they are volcanic explosion craters.     

Size frequency distribution of martian craters and relative age of light and dark terrains

Light and dark terrains in and around Meridiani Sinus, mapped on the imagery from Mariner 6 and Mariner 7, were found to have significantly different cumulative size frequency distributions of craters. The light terrain on a mosaic of frames 6N11, 6N13, and 6N19 has a greater proportion of large craters and a lesser proportion of smaller craters than the dark terrain on the same frames. The light terrain is interpreted to be generally older than the dark terrain. The filling or partial filling of the smaller craters on the light terrain by surface detritus is suggested. Several wide-angle frames have remarkably similar cumulative crater size frequency distributions that may be representative of a large portion of the martian surface.     

Martian craters: number density

The incremental frequency distribution of Martian crater diameters larger than 20 to 30 kilometers follows an inverse-square law, with density equal to that of craters on the lunar continents. This finding accords with the prediction that lunar continents and the Martian surface carry an equilibrium density (saturation) of craters originating in meteoroidal impact. Therefore crater statistics alone cannot be used for estimation of the age of the Martian surface.     

Alteration of lunar optical properties: age and composition effects

A model for lunar surface processes is presented which explains the main albedo and color contrasts and the temporal changes in these optical properties. Evidence from Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 samples and telescopic spectral reflectivity measurements indicates that the maria are similar in mineralogy on a regional scale and that the highlands are consistent with an anorthositic-gabbro composition. Bright craters and rays in both regions expose materials that are relatively crystalline compared with their backgrounds, which are richer in dark glass. With age, bright craters and rays in the maria darken in place by meteorite impact-induced vitrification and mixing with the surrounding material. Highland bright craters and rays may, however, darken primarily through regional contamination by iron- and titanium-rich mare material.     

Lunar topography: first radar-interferometer measurements of the alphonsus-ptolemaeus-arzachel region

Radar interferometry is a new technique for accurately measuring the topography of the lunar surface from the earth. Measurements have been made with this technique of an area including the craters Ptolemaeus, Alphonsus, and Arzachel and a portion of Mare Nubium. There is evidence for a late episode of volcanism that partially filled two of the craters through a crustal fault of Imbrian origin. Several other features of the topography, particularly those coinciding with local gravitational anomalies, can be correlated with flow events.     

Radar glory from buried craters on icy moons

Three ice-covered moons of Jupiter, in comparison with rocky planets and Earth's moon, produce radar echoes of astounding strengths and bizarre polarizations. Scattering from buried craters can explain these and other anomalous properties of the echoes. The role of such craters is analogous to that of the water droplets that create the apparition known as "the glory," the optically bright region surrounding an observer's shadow on a cloud. Both situations involve the electromagnetic phenomenon of total internal reflection at a dielectric interface, operating in a geometry that strongly favors exact backscattering. Dim surface craters are transformed into bright glory holes by being buried under somewhat denser material, thereby increasing the intensity of their echoes by factors of hundreds. The dielectric interface thus formed at the crater walls nicely accounts for the unusual polarizations of the echoes.     

Martian craters and a scarp as seen by radar

Radar observations of Mars with a surface resolution of 1.3 degrees in latitude and 0.8 degrees in longitude have been carried out during the opposition of 1971. With a precision in surface height measurement approaching 75 meters in regions of high reflectivity, it has been possible to measure the detailed characteristics of a number of craters. Many of these can be identified with craters shown in Mariner photographs of Mars. In addition, a scarp has been seen at 41 degrees west, 14 degrees south with an average slope of about 6 degrees extending over about 40 kilometers.     

Lunar Gravity over Large Craters from Apollo 12 Tracking Data

The Doppler residuals from the Apollo 12 lunar module radio tracking data indicate large negative accelerations over the craters Ptolemaeus and Albategnius. The mass deficienicies required to produce these accelerations are approximately equivalent to the removal of the surface material to a depth of 1 kilometer over the entire area of these craters. Several other features of the gravity fine structure can also be correlated with topography.     

The thermal stability of water ice at the poles of mercury

Recent radar observations of Mercury have revealed the presence of anomalous radar reflectivity and polarization features near its north and south poles. Thermal model calculations show that, despite Mercury's proximity to the sun, the temperatures of flat, low-reflectivity surfaces at Mercury's poles are not expected to exceed 167 kelvin. The locations of the anomalous polar radar features appear to be correlated with the locations of large, high-latitude impact craters. Maximum surface temperatures in the permanently shadowed regions of these craters are expected to be significantly colder, as low as 60 kelvin in the largest craters. These results are consistent with the presence of water ice, because at temperatures lower than 112 kelvin, water ice should be stable to evaporation over time scales of billions of years.     

Imaging of small-scale features on 433 Eros from NEAR: evidence for a complex regolith

On 25 October 2000, the Near Earth Asteroid Rendevous (NEAR)-Shoemaker spacecraft executed a low-altitude flyover of asteroid 433 Eros, making it possible to image the surface at a resolution of about 1 meter per pixel. The images reveal an evolved surface distinguished by an abundance of ejecta blocks, a dearth of small craters, and smooth material infilling some topographic lows. The subdued appearance of craters of different diameters and the variety of blocks and different degrees of their burial suggest that ejecta from several impact events blanketed the region imaged at closest approach and led to the building up of a substantial and complex regolith consisting of fine materials and abundant meter-sized blocks.     

Mariner IV: Analysis of Preliminary Photographs

Comparison of the distributions of Martian and lunar crater diameters indicates that the visible surface of Mars is 2.2 to 3 x 10(9) years old. This result implies that in the early history of Mars large-scale subaerial erosion occurred. Of 69 Martian craters with diameters greater than 10 kilometers, 13 percent have central peaks. This compares favorably with the frequency (11.7 percent) of central peaks among lunar craters and may indicate that the central peaks are a direct result of the impact mechanism rather than post-impact volcanism. A well-defined system of lineaments is shown in the Mariner photographs. The presence of these lineaments may indicate that Mars has lost appreciable angular momentum during its history.     

Evidence for recent groundwater seepage and surface runoff on Mars

Relatively young landforms on Mars, seen in high-resolution images acquired by the Mars Global Surveyor Mars Orbiter Camera since March 1999, suggest the presence of sources of liquid water at shallow depths beneath the martian surface. Found at middle and high martian latitudes (particularly in the southern hemisphere), gullies within the walls of a very small number of impact craters, south polar pits, and two of the larger martian valleys display geomorphic features that can be explained by processes associated with groundwater seepage and surface runoff. The relative youth of the landforms is indicated by the superposition of the gullies on otherwise geologically young surfaces and by the absence of superimposed landforms or cross-cutting features, including impact craters, small polygons, and eolian dunes. The limited size and geographic distribution of the features argue for constrained source reservoirs.