Composition from fast neutrons: Application to the Moon

Olivier Gasnault (1) , William C. Feldman (1) , Sylvestre Maurice (2) , Isabelle Genetay (2) , Claude d'Uston (3) , Thomas H. Prettyman (1) , Kurt R. Moore (1)

1 LANL - Los Alamos National Laboratory
2 LATT - Laboratoire Astrophysique de Toulouse-Tarbes
3 CESR - Centre d'étude spatiale des rayonnements

Planetary neutron leakage fluxes provide a measure of surface composition. However to be used in geological studies, a quantitative relationship between measured fluxes and surface composition is needed. The present work shows that neutron production is expected to be a function of the atomic mass, and that the fast leakage flux in the energy range between 0.6 and 8 MeV is linearly related to the average soil atomic mass. This result is consistent with laboratory measurements, and with Lunar Prospector observations of the Moon. When calibrated with returned lunar samples, this relationship is used to construct a map of the average atomic mass of lunar soils.

Mots clés: Geochemistry: Planetary geochemistry; Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Remote sensing; Planetology: Solid Surface Planets: Surface materials and properties; Planetology: Solar System Objects: Moon

Domaines: Planétologie; Astrophysique [astro-ph]; Physique des Hautes Energies - Expérience [hep-ex]

Olivier Gasnault, William C. Feldman, Sylvestre Maurice, Isabelle Genetay, Claude d'Uston, et al.. Composition from fast neutrons: Application to the Moon. Geophysical Research Letters, 2001, 28 (19), pp.3797-3800. ⟨10.1029/2001GL013072⟩. ⟨hal-00342595⟩