Gravity Field of the Orientale Basin from the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory Mission

Zuber, Maria T.; Smith, David E.; Neumann, Gregory A.; Goossens, Sander; Andrews-Hanna, Jeffrey C.; Head, James W.; Kiefer, Walter S.; Asmar, Sami W.; Konopliv, Alexander S.; Lemoine, Frank G.; Matsuyama, Isamu; Melosh, H. Jay; McGovern, Patrick J.; Nimmo, Francis; Phillips, Roger J.; Solomon, Sean C.; Taylor, G. Jeffrey; Watkins, Michael M.; Wieczorek, Mark A.; Williams, James G.; Jansen, Johanna C.; Johnson, Brandon C.; Keane, James T.; Mazarico, Erwan; Miljkovic, Katarina; Park, Ryan S.; Soderblom, Jason M.; Yuan, Dah-Ning

The Orientale basin is the youngest and best-preserved major impact structure on the Moon. We used the Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) spacecraft to investigate the gravitational field of Orientale at 3- to 5-kilometer (km) horizontal resolution. A volume of at least (3.4 +/- 0.2) × 10(exp 6) cu km of crustal material was removed and redistributed during basin formation. There is no preserved evidence of the transient crater that would reveal the basin's maximum volume, but its diameter may now be inferred to be between 320 and 460 km. The gravity field resolves distinctive structures of Orientale's three rings and suggests the presence of faults associated with the outer two that penetrate to the mantle. The crustal structure of Orientale provides constraints on the formation of multiring basins.

Document ID

20170002335

Document Type

Reprint (Version printed in journal)

External Source(s)

doi:10.1126/science.aag0519

Authors

Zuber, Maria T. (Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)

Smith, David E. (Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)

Neumann, Gregory A. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)

Goossens, Sander (Maryland Univ. Baltimore County Baltimore, MD, United States)

Andrews-Hanna, Jeffrey C. (Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO, United States)

Head, James W. (Brown Univ. Providence, RI, United States)

Kiefer, Walter S. (Lunar and Planetary Inst. Houston, TX, United States)

Asmar, Sami W. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)

Konopliv, Alexander S. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)

Lemoine, Frank G. (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)

Matsuyama, Isamu (Arizona Univ. Tucson, AZ, United States)

Melosh, H. Jay (Purdue Univ. West Lafayette, IN, United States)

McGovern, Patrick J. (Lunar and Planetary Inst. Houston, TX, United States)

Nimmo, Francis (California Univ. Santa Cruz, CA, United States)

Phillips, Roger J. (Southwest Research Inst. Boulder, CO, United States)

Solomon, Sean C. (Carnegie Institution of Washington Washington, DC, United States)

Taylor, G. Jeffrey (Hawaii Univ. Honolulu, HI, United States)

Watkins, Michael M. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)

Wieczorek, Mark A. (Universite Paris Diderot Paris, France)

Williams, James G. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)

Jansen, Johanna C. (Colorado School of Mines Golden, CO, United States)

Johnson, Brandon C. (Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)

Keane, James T. (Lunar and Planetary Inst. Houston, TX, United States)

Mazarico, Erwan (NASA Goddard Space Flight Center Greenbelt, MD, United States)

Miljkovic, Katarina (Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)

Park, Ryan S. (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)

Soderblom, Jason M. (Massachusetts Inst. of Tech. Cambridge, MA, United States)

Yuan, Dah-Ning (Jet Propulsion Lab., California Inst. of Tech. Pasadena, CA, United States)

Date Acquired

March 17, 2017

Publication Date

October 28, 2016

Publication Information

Publication: Science

Volume: 354

Issue: 6311

ISSN: 0036-8075

Subject Category

Report/Patent Number

Funding Number(s)

Distribution Limits

Public

Other

NTRS

NTRS - NASA Technical Reports Server