New Impacts on the Moon: LRO Camera Identifies Recent Craters



	The red squares indicate small (a few meters) changes in the surface over the course of a year.

Comparison of images taken by LRO/LROC in the 4 years of operations reveal new craters
Repeat images were taken at nearly identical illumination conditions for easy change detection
In some cases, clusters of possible new craters are observed, suggesting a swarm of impactors
Over 65 new craters have been found thus far in the ~1% of the Moon with repeated NAC images
Based on the number of observed new craters, over one year ~180,000 impacts, that could be identified by LROC, are predicted to form
These new impacts constrain the rate of small impact flux and provide new insights into the modification and erosion of the lunar surface

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Last Updated: 18 July 2013

New Impacts on the Moon: LRO Camera Identifies Recent Craters :: تعاليق