A motivating exploration on lunar craters and low-energy dynamics in the Earth-Moon system

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Publication:990355

DOI10.1007/S10569-010-9272-8zbMATH Open1291.70032arXiv1004.1516OpenAlexW2068561576MaRDI QIDQ990355FDOQ990355


Authors: Elisa Maria Alessi, Josep J. Masdemont, Gerard Gómez Edit this on Wikidata


Publication date: 31 August 2010

Published in: Celestial Mechanics and Dynamical Astronomy (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: It is known that most of the craters on the surface of the Moon were created by the collision of minor bodies of the Solar System. Main Belt Asteroids, which can approach the terrestrial planets as a consequence of different types of resonance, are actually the main responsible for this phenomenon. Our aim is to investigate the impact distributions on the lunar surface that low-energy dynamics can provide. As a first approximation, we exploit the hyberbolic invariant manifolds associated with the central invariant manifold around the equilibrium point L_2 of the Earth - Moon system within the framework of the Circular Restricted Three - Body Problem. Taking transit trajectories at several energy levels, we look for orbits intersecting the surface of the Moon and we attempt to define a relationship between longitude and latitude of arrival and lunar craters density. Then, we add the gravitational effect of the Sun by considering the Bicircular Restricted Four - Body Problem. As further exploration, we assume an uniform density of impact on the lunar surface, looking for the regions in the Earth - Moon neighbourhood these colliding trajectories have to come from. It turns out that low-energy ejecta originated from high-energy impacts are also responsible of the phenomenon we are considering.


Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1004.1516




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