Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Xueying Wang, Zhenzhan Wang, Jingshan Jiang, Dehai Zhang
Summary: By analyzing the microwave radiation features and retrieving the dielectric constant and thickness of lunar regolith, it is recommended to land and sample in the northwest region with thick regolith.
SCIENCE CHINA-EARTH SCIENCES
(2021)
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
Sungwoo Lim, James Bowen, Giulia Degli-Alessandrini, Mahesh Anand, Aidan Cowley, Vibha Levin Prabhu
Summary: Our experiment found that higher microwave powers can generate materials with the highest yields and strongest microstructures in the shortest fabrication times. Thermal runaway improves the efficiency of microwave heating once triggered, which is crucial for future lunar ISRU demonstration missions.
SCIENTIFIC REPORTS
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Mingwei Zhang, Wenzhe Fa, Vincent R. Eke
Summary: This study comprehensively investigates the factors influencing the production and distribution of lunar regolith by individual simple craters. The regolith production is primarily determined by the shattering of bedrock, followed by impact-induced volume change and regolith volume created by secondary cratering. The distribution of regolith is influenced by the preimpact regolith thickness, with a deeper layer resulting in more regolith distributed outside the crater rim. The regolith evolution model provides a better estimation of the growth process and suggests that impact craters dominate the regolith growth process at scales from a meter to a few hectometers, excluding large, distant impacts.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2023)
Article
Engineering, Aerospace
Martin Barmatz, David Steinfeld, Jonathan Batres, Hsin-Yi Hao, Douglas Rickman, Holly Shulman
Summary: This study focuses on the behavior of lunar simulants under microwave heating, providing measurements of microwave dielectric permittivity and magnetic permeability for several highland and mare lunar simulants. The results show that all simulants are weak microwave absorbers at low temperatures, which is valuable for planning microwave sintering at the lunar south pole.
ADVANCES IN SPACE RESEARCH
(2023)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Yongjiu Feng, Yuze Cao, Xiaohua Tong, Peiqi Wu, Shurui Chen, Pengshuo Li, Mengrong Xi, Zhenkun Lei, Rong Wang
Summary: The use of microwave radiation data collected by lunar orbiters, specifically China's Chang'E-2, is crucial for accurately mapping the lunar brightness-temperature (TB) distribution. Data fitting, outlier removal, and spatial interpolation were applied to improve the mapping accuracy. Topography and albedo were found to be the most influential factors for lunar TB.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Lianfa Lei, Zhenhui Wang, Yingying Ma, Lei Zhu, Jiang Qin, Rui Chen, Jianping Lu
Summary: Ground-based multichannel microwave radiometers (GMRs) are capable of observing solar radiation, with improved control algorithms allowing for accurate measurement of solar brightness temperature that aligns with previous studies. Additionally, GMRs can respond to variations in sunspots and show a positive correlation between solar brightness temperature and sunspot numbers. This demonstrates the potential broadening of GMR utility through solar observation techniques.
Article
Multidisciplinary Sciences
K. E. Mandt, O. Mousis, D. Hurley, A. Bouquet, K. D. Retherford, L. O. Magana, A. Luspay-Kuti
Summary: Returning humans to the Moon offers a unique opportunity to study the origin of volatiles in the permanently shaded regions (PSRs). The source of these volatiles, sampled by the LCROSS mission, is likely cometary impacts and not volcanic outgassing. This suggests that volatiles in the top 1-3 meters of the Cabeus PSR regolith could be younger than the most recent volcanic outgassing event.
NATURE COMMUNICATIONS
(2022)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Xi Yang, Wenzhe Fa, Jun Du, Minggang Xie, Tiantian Liu
Summary: The study explores the impact of topographic degradation on crater morphology and its influence on regolith thickness estimation using a shape model for small fresh craters and simulation results. A revised method is proposed and applied to Apollo landing sites for a more accurate regolith thickness estimate, contributing to a better understanding of lunar surface evolution.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Yongjiu Feng, Shurui Chen, Xiaohua Tong, Chao Wang, Pengshuo Li, Mengrong Xi, Changjiang Xiao
Summary: The Yutu-2 rover on China's Chang'E-4 mission successfully landed in the Von Karman crater on the lunar farside, which may provide valuable information about lunar formation and evolution. Using the Lunar Penetrating Radar (LPR) onboard the rover, a band-limited impedance (BLIMP) inversion method was proposed to generate continuous dielectric 2-D profiles. By analyzing the dielectric constants retrieved from point reflectors, the team estimated variations in regolith thickness along the rover's path and found that it could be attributed to changes in ancient surface topography and nearby crater ejecta. The study's findings can improve our understanding of lunar subsurface structure and formation.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Hu Yang, Jun Zhou, Ninghai Sun, Quanhua Liu, Robert Leslie, Kent Anderson, Edward Kim, Cheng-Hsan Lyu, Craig Smith, Lisa McCormick
Summary: This study presents a retrieval of Moon surface microwave brightness temperature using ATMS, revealing a clear increasing trend in Tb as frequency increases.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Thi Mai Nguyen, Jeffrey P. Walker, Nan Ye, Jayantha Kodikara
Summary: This study investigated the influence of environmental conditions on microwave brightness temperature measurements in a warehouse with concrete and steel construction. The results showed that the built environment significantly affected the TB observed by the sensor and indoor measurements could not be directly used for reliable soil moisture retrieval. The environment correction equation provided substantial improvement in estimating soil moisture from indoor measurements.
IEEE GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Materials Science, Ceramics
Young-Jae Kim, Byung Hyun Ryu, Hyunwoo Jin, Jangguen Lee, Hyu-Soung Shin
Summary: The KLS-1 lunar regolith simulant was microwaved sintered to investigate its potential applicability in future lunar construction. Results showed that as the sintering temperature increased, linear shrinkage and density increased, porosity decreased, mechanical strength significantly improved, making it a promising option for building material with sufficient mechanical strength and thermal durability for lunar construction.
CERAMICS INTERNATIONAL
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
R. Bugiolacchi, G. -P. Hu, Y. C. Zheng
Summary: A new lunar map was generated using data from two frequency channels of nocturnal microwave radiance, revealing areas of anomalous high differences related to young impact craters. Microwave features are likely influenced by terrain roughness and ejecta materials, providing additional information on buried materials. However, the low spatial resolution of available microwave data hinders accurate quantitative analysis.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2022)
Article
Environmental Sciences
Wei Yang, Guoping Hu, Fan Yang, Wenchao Zheng
Summary: The different thermophysical properties of rocks compared to lunar regolith strongly affect the temperature of the Moon's surface and subsurface. This study utilizes microwave radiometer data from Chang'E-1 and Chang'E-2 missions to estimate the abundance of subsurface rocks on the Moon. The results show that the subsurface rock abundance differs from the surface rock abundance.
Article
Environmental Sciences
Xiangkun Wan, Xiaofeng Li, Tao Jiang, Xingming Zheng, Lei Li, Xigang Wang
Summary: A digital automatic gain compensation (AGC) drone-borne K-band microwave radiometer is designed and applied to obtain high-resolution radiation brightness temperature (TB) images. The composition of the drone-borne observation system is introduced, and a data processing method considering topography and angle correction is proposed. The error analysis of the projection process is carried out, and a high-resolution microwave radiation TB image is obtained through a demonstration area experiment. The experiments verify the characteristics of the radiometer, with a standard deviation of the TB being 1K. The proposed data processing method is validated using a demonstration case, showing a good correlation between the corrected data and the theoretical values, with an R-2 value of 0.87. The obtained high-resolution radiation TB image effectively shows the TB characteristics of different objects and improves the accuracy of ground object boundaries after correction.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Wenzhe Fa
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
(2020)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Huazhong Ren, Jing Nie, Jiaji Dong, Rongyuan Liu, Wenzhe Fa, Ling Hu, Wenjie Fan
Summary: The Diviner sensor provides global observations of lunar surface temperature, but a single emissivity value used in the retrieval reduces accuracy. To address this issue, a TES algorithm was developed to retrieve LST and emissivity using CF channel observations, demonstrating high retrieval accuracy.
EARTH AND SPACE SCIENCE
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Dijun Guo, Wenzhe Fa, Bo Wu, Yuan Li, Yang Liu
Summary: This study presents the millimeter-to decimeter-scale surface slope and roughness of the Moon at China's Chang'e-4 landing regions for the first time. The bidirectional slope and RMS height show scale-dependent behaviors, with bidirectional slope decreasing from micrometer to kilometer scales. Lunar surface roughness is mainly controlled by small impact craters, rocks, and regolith properties at millimeter-scale.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Oriane Gassot, Alain Herique, Wenzhe Fa, Jun Du, Wlodek Kofman
Summary: The study finds that radar observation of asteroids using Synthetic Aperture Radar Tomography can provide insights into their internal structure. However, applying this technique in the geometry of small bodies requires simulation to evaluate the performance of different tomography algorithms.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Bojun Jia, Wenzhe Fa, Minggang Xie, Yushan Tai, Xiaofeng Liu
Summary: In December 2020, China's Chang'E-5 spacecraft collected 1.731 kg samples from Oceanus Procellarum on the Moon's nearside, providing valuable information for understanding the geological context and properties of the returned regolith samples. Through a comprehensive analysis of regolith properties in the landing region, it was found that the majority of surface regolith are local materials and the thickness of regolith varies from about 1.5 to 8 meters.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2021)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
A. Broquet, M. A. Wieczorek, W. Fa
Summary: By combining radar, gravity, and topography data with a flexural loading model, the study estimates the density, dielectric constant, and elastic thickness of the lithosphere beneath the south polar cap on Mars. The results suggest a maximum lithospheric flexure of 770 m, a potential 26% increase in the volume of the polar cap, and a surface heat flow lower limit of 23.5 mW m-2, indicating significant differences in thermal evolution between the north and south poles.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2021)
Article
Geosciences, Multidisciplinary
Xi Yang, Wenzhe Fa, Jun Du, Minggang Xie, Tiantian Liu
Summary: The study explores the impact of topographic degradation on crater morphology and its influence on regolith thickness estimation using a shape model for small fresh craters and simulation results. A revised method is proposed and applied to Apollo landing sites for a more accurate regolith thickness estimate, contributing to a better understanding of lunar surface evolution.
GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH LETTERS
(2021)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Yazhou Yang, Shuai Li, Meng-Hua Zhu, Yang Liu, Bo Wu, Jun Du, Wenzhe Fa, Rui Xu, Zhiping He, Chi Wang, Bin Xue, Jianfeng Yang, Yongliao Zou
Summary: The study reports the discovery of carbonaceous chondrite fragments on the lunar surface by the Yutu-2 rover of Chang'e-4, which could potentially be a water source for the Moon. This is the first direct observation of such remnants through remote sensing exploration.
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Jun Du, Wenzhe Fa, Shengxia Gong, Yang Liu, Le Qiao, Yushan Tai, Feng Zhang, Yongliao Zou
Summary: China's Chang'E-5 mission collected lunar samples from a region on the Moon that was flooded with four layers of basaltic lava flows. Using various data, researchers estimated the thickness of each layer and calculated the eruption rate of mare basalts in the region. The results indicate a rejuvenated volcanic activity on the Moon around 2 billion years ago.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Bojun Jia, Wenzhe Fa, Mingwei Zhang, Kaichang Di, Minggang Xie, Yushan Tai, Yang Li
Summary: China's Chang'E-5 mission has collected 1.731 kg samples from a young mare basalt unit in the northeastern Oceanus Procellarum region of the Moon. The provenance, chemical composition, formation, and evolution processes of the regolith at the CE-5 landing site are analyzed. The results provide key information on sample provenance and regolith stratigraphy of the landing site, which is crucial to deciphering the returned CE-5 samples.
EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCE LETTERS
(2022)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Yueyang Li, Wenzhe Fa, Bojun Jia
Summary: The morphology of small lunar impact craters at decimeter to hectometer scales was investigated using high-resolution data from the Chang'E-3/4/5 missions. The results show that crater depth, rim height, and inner wall slope increase with diameter, with smaller values than larger craters. The regolith strength differs among the three landing regions. Additionally, meter-scale concentric and flat-bottomed craters were observed, possibly caused by strength heterogeneity within the regolith layer. These findings provide insights into near-surface properties, lunar surface evolution, and impact cratering process.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2023)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Qinghai Sun, Wenzhe Fa, Meng-Hua Zhu, Jun Du
Summary: This study investigates the physical properties and evolution of sub-kilometer lunar craters and estimates the exposure and burial periods of rocks and ejecta. The results show that the time at which the largest CPR occurs varies in different regions of the craters.
RESEARCH IN ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Mingwei Zhang, Wenzhe Fa, Vincent R. Eke
Summary: This study comprehensively investigates the factors influencing the production and distribution of lunar regolith by individual simple craters. The regolith production is primarily determined by the shattering of bedrock, followed by impact-induced volume change and regolith volume created by secondary cratering. The distribution of regolith is influenced by the preimpact regolith thickness, with a deeper layer resulting in more regolith distributed outside the crater rim. The regolith evolution model provides a better estimation of the growth process and suggests that impact craters dominate the regolith growth process at scales from a meter to a few hectometers, excluding large, distant impacts.
JOURNAL OF GEOPHYSICAL RESEARCH-PLANETS
(2023)
Article
Geochemistry & Geophysics
Xiaofeng Liu, Wenzhe Fa
Summary: Spaceborne radar sounding is a powerful technique for planetary subsurface exploration. Three radar sounders orbiting Mars have collected a large quantity of radargrams, which provide valuable information for deciphering subsurface structure and composition. However, automatic and effective extraction of subsurface reflectors in radargrams remains a challenge. In this study, a fully automatic method using transform domain techniques and graph theory is proposed, and applied to SHARAD radargrams in the polar regions of Mars. The results demonstrate the effectiveness and applicability of the proposed algorithm.
IEEE TRANSACTIONS ON GEOSCIENCE AND REMOTE SENSING
(2022)
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Minggang Xie, Zhiyong Xiao, Luyuan Xu, Wenzhe Fa, Aoao Xu
Summary: The bombardment of impactors created numerous impact craters on the Moon, with the population of large impact craters observed on heavily cratered lunar highlands differing from that on the lunar maria. Evidence suggests an early instability of giant planets around 4.5 Gyr ago, with a transition in dominant Earth-Moon impactors from leftover planetesimals to asteroids occurring around 3.5 Gyr ago.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Maria Angeles Lopez-Cayuela, Maria-Paz Zorzano, Juan Luis Guerrero-Rascado, Carmen Cordoba-Jabonero
Summary: The atmospheric dust cycle on Mars plays a dominant role in the planetary radiative balance, atmospheric photochemistry escape, and redistribution of materials on the surface. A methodology is presented to accurately describe the annual dust redistribution cycle on Mars using orbital global and seasonal measurements of atmospheric dust opacity. The analysis shows that approximately 4 trillion kilograms of dust is transported globally in the atmosphere during a typical Mars year.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Audrey Vorburger, Shahab Fatemi, Shane R. Carberry Mogan, Andre Galli, Lucas Liuzzo, Andrew R. Poppe, Lorenz Roth, Peter Wurz
Summary: The study presents new model results for the composition of Ganymede's atmosphere, finding that sublimation remains the major source process for H2O, while radiolysis induced by auroral electrons dominates the source fluxes for O2 and H2.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Qi He, Zhi Cao, Yuqi Qian, Hejiu Hui, Ioannis Baziotis, Long Xiao, Zaicong Wang, Biji Luo, Yiheng Li, Zongjun Ying, Yang Li
Summary: The Chang'e-5 mission collected lunar soil containing magnesian troctolitic granulites, which provide valuable information on the composition of the lunar crust. Through analysis and modeling, it is suggested that these granulites may have originated from the Pythagoras crater and were transported to the landing site.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Jordan M. Bretzfelder, Kathryn M. Stack, Abigail A. Fraeman, Mackenzie Day, William E. Dietrich, Alexander B. Bryk
Summary: This study investigates the development of bedrock ridges on Mars and their implications for wind history, deposition, and erosion in Gale crater.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lot Ram, Diptiranjan Rout, Rahul Rathi, Paul Withers, Sumanta Sarkhel
Summary: This study investigates the impacts of interplanetary coronal mass ejections (ICMEs) on the Martian ionosphere, specifically the behavior of the ionospheric peak density and height during ICME passages. The study used observations from the Radio Occultation Science Experiment (ROSE) aboard the MAVEN spacecraft and selected 8 ICMEs from existing catalogs. The results show that ICMEs lead to an elevation of the ionospheric peak height and a decrease in peak density, and propose that vertical pressure gradient and electron temperature enhancement are plausible causes for ionospheric variability.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Benoit Jabaud, Riccardo Artoni, Gabriel Tobie, Erwan Le Menn, Patrick Richard
Summary: The Cassini spacecraft discovered active jets of water vapour and ice grains at the South Pole of Enceladus, resulting in the deposit of freshly erupted materials on the moon's icy surface. Similar processes may be happening on Europa as well. Determining the mechanical properties of fresh icy powder-like materials is essential for future landing and sampling missions. The flowability and surface energy of ice powders decrease with increasing temperatures, which may have implications for stable landing and the flow of ice materials on Enceladus and Europa.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Lydie Bonal, Eric Quirico, Gilles Montagnac, Mutsumi Komatsu, Yoko Kebukawa, Hikaru Yabuta, Kana Amano, Jens Barosch, Laure Bejach, George D. Cody, Emmanuel Dartois, Alexandre Dazzi, Bradley De Gregorio, Ariane Deniset-Besseau, Jean Duprat, Cecile Engrand, Minako Hashiguchi, Kanami Kamide, David Kilcoyne, Zita Martins, Jeremie Mathurin, Smail Mostefaoui, Larry Nittler, Takuji Ohigashi, Taiga Okumura, Laurent Remusat, Scott Sandford, Miho Shigenaka, Rhonda Stroud, Hiroki Suga, Yoshio Takahashi, Yasuo Takeichi, Yusuke Tamenori, Maximilien Verdier-Paoletti, Shohei Yamashita, Tomoki Nakamura, Hiroshi Naraoka, Takaaki Noguchi, Ryuji Okazaki, Hisayoshi Yurimoto, Shogo Tachibana, Masanao Abe, Akiko Miyazaki, Aiko Nakato, Satoru Nakazawa, Masahiro Nishimura, Tatsuaki Okada, Takanao Saiki, Kanako Sakamoto, Satoshi Tanaka, Fuyuto Terui, Yuichi Tsuda, Tomohiro Usui, Sei-ichiro Watanabe, Toru Yada, Kasumi Yogata, Makota Yoshikawa
Summary: This paper focuses on characterizing the thermal history of asteroid Ryugu by studying the structure of polyaromatic carbonaceous matter in the returned samples. The study finds that there is no structural difference in the polyaromatic component between the two sampling sites on Ryugu, indicating that the thermal metamorphism related to radioactive decay was not significant. However, some structural variability is observed within the particle set.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
M. Luginin, A. Fedorova, D. Belyaev, F. Montmessin, O. Korablev, J. -l. Bertaux
Summary: Spectroscopic solar occultation measurements by the SPICAV/SOIR instrument onboard the Venus Express orbiter provided new data on the upper haze aerosol properties, its distribution, and variations. A joint analysis of data from two spectrometers revealed a bimodal distribution in about 50% of observations previously believed to be unimodal, and characterized the size distribution 10 km higher in the atmosphere compared to previous analysis.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
A. Mahieux, S. Viscardy, K. L. Jessup, F. P. Mills, L. Trompet, S. Robert, S. Aoki, A. Piccialli, A. C. Vandaele
Summary: We report on the mean upper limit number densities and volume concentrations of H2CO, O-3, NH3, HCN, N2O, NO2, NO, and HO2 at the Venus terminator above the cloud layer. Attempts to detect these species using a statistical algorithm and the method presented by Trompet et al. (2021) were unsuccessful, and upper limits of detection are provided.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
P. M. Streeter, S. R. Lewis, M. R. Patel, J. A. Holmes, K. Rajendran
Summary: The northern polar vortex on Mars shows a high degree of interannual repeatability in its structure and evolution, except during large dust storms. The seasonal timing of these storms seems to be the key factor determining their impacts on the polar vortex.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Michael T. Mellon, Hanna G. Sizemore, Jennifer L. Heldmann, Christopher P. McKay, Carol R. Stoker
Summary: The search for life is a major focus of Mars exploration, with temperature and water activity being key factors for habitability. The most recent habitable conditions occurred about 510 kyrs ago and lasted for about 10s of kyrs each occurrence. All latitudes offer potential for life exploration, but middle-latitude sites have access to 100-kyr-old ice that experienced past habitable conditions, while high-latitude sites offer access to ancient ice over 1 Myrs old.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Anthony Ozerov, Jeffrey C. Smith, Jessie L. Dotson, Randolph S. Longenbaugh, Robert L. Morris
Summary: The Geostationary Lightning Mapper (GLM) instruments, with their large combined field of view, are useful for studying the population of atmospheric phenomena like bolides. However, there are biases when using GLM for non-lightning purposes, which need to be studied and accounted for before precise measurements of bolide flux can be obtained. A Bayesian Poisson regression model was developed to estimate instrumental biases and the latitudinal variation of bolide flux concurrently. The estimated bias corresponds to the known sensitivity of the GLM instruments, and the latitudinal flux variation estimates are consistent with a strong bias towards high-velocity bolides, as compared to existing theoretical models.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
P. Beck, P. Y. Meslin, A. Fau, O. Forni, O. Gasnault, J. Lasue, A. Cousin, S. Schroeder, S. Maurice, W. Rapin, R. C. Wiens, A. M. Ollila, E. Dehouck, N. Mangold, B. Garcia, S. Schwartz, W. Goetz, N. Lanza
Summary: Analysis of data obtained by ChemCam on Mars reveals that the carbon signal is mainly related to ionization of the atmosphere, with variability potentially linked to the physical state of the atmosphere. Up to sol 3355, no carbonate was detected in the ChemCam dataset, suggesting that it is not a major constituent (>50%) in the analyzed targets and that carbon in soils is not enriched beyond the limit of detection. The dominant salts found in Gale are sulfate and chlorides, while the absence of carbonates, seen in Jezero, may be due to differences in protolith.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Eloy Pena-Asensio, Jaakko Visuri, Josep M. Trigo-Rodriguez, Hector Socas-Navarro, Maria Gritsevich, Markku Siljama, Albert Rimola
Summary: The observation of interstellar objects 1I/'Oumuamua and 2I/Borisov suggests the existence of a larger population of smaller projectiles that impact our planet with unbound orbits. A statistical evaluation of uncertainties in the CNEOS database and study of its hyperbolic fireballs reveals an anisotropic geocentric radiant distribution and low orbital inclinations, challenging the assumption of a randomly incoming interstellar population. These findings suggest that apparent interstellar meteors may, in fact, be the result of accelerated meteoroid impacts caused by close encounters with massive objects within or passing through our solar system.
Article
Astronomy & Astrophysics
Cecilia W. S. Leung, Leslie K. Tamppari, David M. Kass, German Martinez, Erik Fischer, Michael D. Smith
Summary: Using a combination of orbital and surface observations, this study investigates the vertical distribution of water vapor in the lower atmospheres of Mars. The findings suggest that the assumption of uniformly mixed water vapor in the boundary layer is not always consistent with observational constraints. The results provide important insights into the seasonal transport of water and the role of regolith-atmospheric exchange.
