A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area
Chang’e-6 (CE-6) is the first sample-return mission from the lunar farside and will be launched in May of 2024. The landing area is in the south of the Apollo basin inside the South Pole Aitken basin. Statistics and analyses of impact craters in the landing area are essential to support safe landing...
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:aee16d0f26aa4780a49f7709a2dd50bb 2024-09-15T18:36:55+00:00 A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area Yexin Wang Jing Nan Chenxu Zhao Bin Xie Sheng Gou Zongyu Yue Kaichang Di Hong Zhang Xiangjin Deng Shujuan Sun 2024-06-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16112014 https://doaj.org/article/aee16d0f26aa4780a49f7709a2dd50bb EN eng MDPI AG https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/11/2014 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs16112014 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/aee16d0f26aa4780a49f7709a2dd50bb Remote Sensing, Vol 16, Iss 11, p 2014 (2024) Chang’e-6 landing area crater catalogue surface age lunar farside Science Q article 2024 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16112014 2024-08-05T17:49:12Z Chang’e-6 (CE-6) is the first sample-return mission from the lunar farside and will be launched in May of 2024. The landing area is in the south of the Apollo basin inside the South Pole Aitken basin. Statistics and analyses of impact craters in the landing area are essential to support safe landing and geologic studies. In particular, the crater size–frequency distribution information of the landing area is critical to understanding the provenance of the CE-6 lunar samples to be returned and can be used to verify and refine the lunar chronology model by combining with the radioisotope ages of the relevant samples. In this research, a digital orthophoto map (DOM) mosaic with resolution of 3 m/pixel of the CE-6 landing area was generated from the 743 Narrow Angle Camera of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. Based on the DOM, craters were extracted by an automated method and checked manually. A total of 770,731 craters were extracted in the whole area of 246 km × 135 km, 511,484 craters of which were within the mare area. Systematic analyses of the crater distribution, completeness, spatial density, and depth-to-diameter ratio were conducted. Geologic model age estimation was carried out in the mare area that was divided into three geologic units according to the TiO 2 abundance. The result showed that the east part of the mare had the oldest model age of <semantics> μ 3.27 − 0.045 + 0.036 </semantics> Ga, and the middle part of the mare had the youngest model age of <semantics> μ 2.49 − 0.073 + 0.072 </semantics> Ga. The crater catalogue and the surface model age analysis results were used to support topographic and geologic analyses of the pre-selected landing area of the CE-6 mission before the launch and will contribute to further scientific researches after the lunar samples are returned to Earth. Article in Journal/Newspaper South pole Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Remote Sensing 16 11 2014 |
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Open Polar |
collection |
Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
op_collection_id |
ftdoajarticles |
language |
English |
topic |
Chang’e-6 landing area crater catalogue surface age lunar farside Science Q |
spellingShingle |
Chang’e-6 landing area crater catalogue surface age lunar farside Science Q Yexin Wang Jing Nan Chenxu Zhao Bin Xie Sheng Gou Zongyu Yue Kaichang Di Hong Zhang Xiangjin Deng Shujuan Sun A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area |
topic_facet |
Chang’e-6 landing area crater catalogue surface age lunar farside Science Q |
description |
Chang’e-6 (CE-6) is the first sample-return mission from the lunar farside and will be launched in May of 2024. The landing area is in the south of the Apollo basin inside the South Pole Aitken basin. Statistics and analyses of impact craters in the landing area are essential to support safe landing and geologic studies. In particular, the crater size–frequency distribution information of the landing area is critical to understanding the provenance of the CE-6 lunar samples to be returned and can be used to verify and refine the lunar chronology model by combining with the radioisotope ages of the relevant samples. In this research, a digital orthophoto map (DOM) mosaic with resolution of 3 m/pixel of the CE-6 landing area was generated from the 743 Narrow Angle Camera of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera. Based on the DOM, craters were extracted by an automated method and checked manually. A total of 770,731 craters were extracted in the whole area of 246 km × 135 km, 511,484 craters of which were within the mare area. Systematic analyses of the crater distribution, completeness, spatial density, and depth-to-diameter ratio were conducted. Geologic model age estimation was carried out in the mare area that was divided into three geologic units according to the TiO 2 abundance. The result showed that the east part of the mare had the oldest model age of <semantics> μ 3.27 − 0.045 + 0.036 </semantics> Ga, and the middle part of the mare had the youngest model age of <semantics> μ 2.49 − 0.073 + 0.072 </semantics> Ga. The crater catalogue and the surface model age analysis results were used to support topographic and geologic analyses of the pre-selected landing area of the CE-6 mission before the launch and will contribute to further scientific researches after the lunar samples are returned to Earth. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Yexin Wang Jing Nan Chenxu Zhao Bin Xie Sheng Gou Zongyu Yue Kaichang Di Hong Zhang Xiangjin Deng Shujuan Sun |
author_facet |
Yexin Wang Jing Nan Chenxu Zhao Bin Xie Sheng Gou Zongyu Yue Kaichang Di Hong Zhang Xiangjin Deng Shujuan Sun |
author_sort |
Yexin Wang |
title |
A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area |
title_short |
A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area |
title_full |
A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area |
title_fullStr |
A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area |
title_full_unstemmed |
A Catalogue of Impact Craters and Surface Age Analysis in the Chang’e-6 Landing Area |
title_sort |
catalogue of impact craters and surface age analysis in the chang’e-6 landing area |
publisher |
MDPI AG |
publishDate |
2024 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16112014 https://doaj.org/article/aee16d0f26aa4780a49f7709a2dd50bb |
genre |
South pole |
genre_facet |
South pole |
op_source |
Remote Sensing, Vol 16, Iss 11, p 2014 (2024) |
op_relation |
https://www.mdpi.com/2072-4292/16/11/2014 https://doaj.org/toc/2072-4292 doi:10.3390/rs16112014 2072-4292 https://doaj.org/article/aee16d0f26aa4780a49f7709a2dd50bb |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3390/rs16112014 |
container_title |
Remote Sensing |
container_volume |
16 |
container_issue |
11 |
container_start_page |
2014 |
_version_ |
1810480646204686336 |