Mare Serenitatis: Crater Statistics and Lunar Chronology (SMART-1)

http://www.esa.int/SPECIALS/SMART-1/SEM847BUQPE_0.html

Mare Serenitatis: crater statistics and lunar chronology
SMART-1
European Space Agency
31 July 2006

This animated sequence, composed of three images taken by the advanced
Moon Imaging Experiment (AMIE) on board ESA's SMART-1 spacecraft, shows
a portion of Mare Serenitatis on the Moon.

AMIE obtained the images on 18 March 2006 from distances between 1257
and 1213 kilometres from the surface, with a ground resolution ranging
between 114 and 110 metres per pixel. The imaged area is centred at
about 21?? East longitude and 18?? North latitude, with a lunar
field of
view of 57 km. The Sun was on the West direction (top of this image) at
about 50 degrees elevation.

Mare Serenitatis is one of the lunar maria, that are vast lava plains
on
the lunar surface. It formed between 3.9 and 3.8 thousand million years
ago, a period in which the Moon was heavily bombarded by asteroids and
the major impact basins on the Moon were formed. This was followed by
an
episode of lunar volcanism that flooded the basin with basalt creating
a
fresh and flat surface.

To its southeast border, Mare Serenitatis lies close to Mare
Tranquillitatis. Both maria were visited by previous lunar landers. In
particular, Luna 21 and Apollo 17 (the last manned lunar mission to
land
on the Moon so far), landed on Mare Serenitatis in January 1973 and
December 1972, respectively.

"Thanks to the solar elevation and SMART-1 camera resolution, the
statistics of the sizes of the craters can be well determined in
different units," says SMART-1 Project scientist Bernard Foing. "This
permits us to establish a chronology, calibrated on absolute ages from
isotopic measurements on returned lunar samples".

For more information

Bernard H. Foing, ESA SMART-1 Project Scientist
Email: bernard.foing @ esa.int

Jean-Luc Josset, SPACE-X Space Exploration Institute
Email: jean-luc.josset @ space-x.ch

.

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