scholarly journals The Physical Librations of the Moon Caused by its Tidal Deformation

Author(s):  
M.Yu. Barkin ◽  
P.M. Shkapov ◽  
Hideo Hanada

The Moon, like Earth, is not completely solid, and experiences deformation changes, for example due to the tides, caused by the gravitational pull of the Earth's orbit in a complex and resonant nature of the motion of the Moon. It is shown that these deformations lead to temporary variations of Moon inertia tensor components and consequently to the variations in the movement of the poles of the Moon, as well as to the variations of axial rotation. The indicated variations module is in the order of 10--12 mas (millisecond of arc). There variations are important for the development of the high-precision theory of lunar physical libration, suitable for modern projects for the reclamation of the Moon, in particular the Japanese project ILOM, which contemplates installing the telescope on the lunar surface and determining its orientation accuracy of the order of 1--0.1 msd, as well as the Russian lunar program, providing the launch of five automatic stations to the Moon in 2019--2024

1962 ◽  
Vol 14 ◽  
pp. 113-115
Author(s):  
D. W. G. Arthur ◽  
E. A. Whitaker

The cartography of the lunar surface can be split into two operations which can be carried on quite independently. The first, which is also the most laborious, is the interpretation of the lunar photographs into the symbolism of the map, with the addition of fine details from telescopic sketches. An example of this kind of work is contained in Johann Krieger'sMond Atlaswhich consists of photographic enlargements in which Krieger has sharpened up the detail to accord with his telescopic impressions. Krieger did not go on either to convert the photographic picture into the line symbolism of a map, or to place this picture on any definite map projection.


2018 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 207-216 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Fisher ◽  
Lionel Sims

Claims first made over half a century ago that certain prehistoric monuments utilised high-precision alignments on the horizon risings and settings of the Sun and the Moon have recently resurfaced. While archaeoastronomy early on retreated from these claims, as a way to preserve the discipline in an academic boundary dispute, it did so without a rigorous examination of Thom’s concept of a “lunar standstill”. Gough’s uncritical resurrection of Thom’s usage of the term provides a long-overdue opportunity for the discipline to correct this slippage. Gough (2013), in keeping with Thom (1971), claims that certain standing stones and short stone rows point to distant horizon features which allow high-precision alignments on the risings and settings of the Sun and the Moon dating from about 1700 BC. To assist archaeoastronomy in breaking out of its interpretive rut and from “going round in circles” (Ruggles 2011), this paper evaluates the validity of this claim. Through computer modelling, the celestial mechanics of horizon alignments are here explored in their landscape context with a view to testing the very possibility of high-precision alignments to the lunar extremes. It is found that, due to the motion of the Moon on the horizon, only low-precision alignments are feasible, which would seem to indicate that the properties of lunar standstills could not have included high-precision markers for prehistoric megalith builders.


2013 ◽  
Vol 79 (4) ◽  
pp. 405-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
SERGEY I. POPEL ◽  
LEV M. ZELENYI

AbstractFrom the Apollo era of exploration, it was discovered that sunlight was scattered at the terminators giving rise to “horizon glow” and “streamers” above the lunar surface. Subsequent investigations have shown that the sunlight was most likely scattered by electrostatically charged dust grains originating from the surface. A renaissance is being observed currently in investigations of the Moon. The Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource missions (the latter jointly with India) are being prepared in Russia. Some of these missions will include investigations of lunar dust. Here we discuss the future experimental investigations of lunar dust within the missions of Luna-Glob and Luna-Resource. We consider the dusty plasma system over the lunar surface and determine the maximum height of dust rise. We describe mechanisms of formation of the dusty plasma system over the Moon and its main properties, determine distributions of electrons and dust over the lunar surface, and show a possibility of rising dust particles over the surface of the illuminated part of the Moon in the entire range of lunar latitudes. Finally, we discuss the effect of condensation of micrometeoriod substance during the expansion of the impact plume and show that this effect is important from the viewpoint of explanation of dust particle rise to high altitudes in addition to the dusty plasma effects.


2012 ◽  
Vol 74 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-14 ◽  
Author(s):  
I.A. Crawford ◽  
M. Anand ◽  
C.S. Cockell ◽  
H. Falcke ◽  
D.A. Green ◽  
...  

2009 ◽  
Vol 5 (S261) ◽  
pp. 112-123 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. A. Klioner ◽  
E. Gerlach ◽  
M. H. Soffel

AbstractRelativistic modelling of rotational motion of extended bodies represents one of the most complicated problems of Applied Relativity. The relativistic reference systems of IAU (2000) give a suitable theoretical framework for such a modelling. Recent developments in the post-Newtonian theory of Earth rotation in the limit of rigidly rotating multipoles are reported below. All components of the theory are summarized and the results are demonstrated. The experience with the relativistic Earth rotation theory can be directly applied to model the rotational motion of other celestial bodies. The high-precision theories of rotation of the Moon, Mars and Mercury can be expected to be of interest in the near future.


2009 ◽  
Vol 57 (7) ◽  
pp. 744-750 ◽  
Author(s):  
B.M. Swinyard ◽  
K.H. Joy ◽  
B.J. Kellett ◽  
I.A. Crawford ◽  
M. Grande ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
The Moon ◽  

1992 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 525-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
Masatsugu Ooe ◽  
Hideo Hanada
Keyword(s):  
The Moon ◽  

1976 ◽  
Vol 31 ◽  
pp. 233-237 ◽  
Author(s):  
Otto E. Berg ◽  
Henry Wolf ◽  
John Rhee

In December, 1973, a Lunar Ejecta and Meteorites (LEAM) experiment was placed in the Taurus-Littrow area of the moon by the Apollo 17 Astronauts. Objectives of the experiment were centered around measurements of impact parameters of cosmic dust on the lunar surface. During preliminary attempts to analyze the data it became evident that the events registered by the sensors could not be attributed to cosmic dust but could only be identified with the lunar surface and the local sun angle. The nature of these data coupled with post-flight studies of instrument characteristics, have led to a conclusion that the LEAM experiment is responding primarily to a flux of highly charged, slowly moving lunar surface fines. Undoubtedly concealed in these data is the normal impact activity from cosmic dust and probably lunar ejecta, as well. This paper is based on the recognition that the bulk of events registered by the LEAM experiment are not signatures of hypervelocity cosmic dust particles, as expected, but are induced signatures of electrostatically charged and transported lunar fines.


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