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This is strong evidence that solar wind shielding plays a role in their formation. All of this is in comparison to the background surface. The dark albedo regions show spectral properties that are more mature than the bright areas. The light or bright albedo regions represent areas that are shielded by the associated magnetic anomalies, show spectral properties that are less mature, and display a decreased abundance of implanted solar wind hydrogen (which forms OH). The light and dark albedo patterns that define swirls appear intertwined. "For swirls, dust transport is the process most affected by elevation changes and we now re-examine the role of dust mobility across the lunar surface in the context of this new discovery," Domingue said. These differences are apparent in the meter-scale-resolution topographical data. Two swirl regions in Mare Ingenii-a large, dark basaltic plain formed by ancient volcanic eruptions on the Moon's far side-display a correlation between albedo and topography, where the bulk elevation in the bright regions is lower than the bulk elevation in the dark regions. This correlation argues that there is more than just shielding from space weathering that goes into their creation," Domingue said. "Until now the swirls were thought to overlay the topography, which has been cited as part of the evidence that they are created through shielding of the surface from the solar wind by the magnetic fields present at swirls. PSI scientists John Weirich, Frank Chuang, Amanda Sickafoose and Eric Palmer are co-authors. Albedo is the measure of brightness or the proportion of light reflected from a surface, with a dark object having a low albedo. "This is the first time there has been a demonstrated correlation between the swirl albedo patterns and topography," said PSI Senior Scientist Deborah Domingue, lead author of "Topographic Correlations within Lunar Swirls in Mare Ingenii" that appears in Geophysical Research Letters. In September 2010, the probe wrapped this mission up and shifted into more of a pure science mode to help scientists better understand Earth's nearest neighbor.Įven before the latest data release, LRO had delivered in a big way, helping researchers generate the most detailed map of the lunar surface ever made.įollow for the latest in space science and exploration news on Twitter and on Facebook. LRO is about the size of a Mini Cooper car, and it's equipped with seven instruments to observe the moon. The spacecraft circles the moon in a polar orbit, at an altitude of about 31 miles (50 kilometers).įor the first year of its operational life, LRO spent most of its time scouting the moon to help NASA plan for future lunar exploration missions. LCROSS crashed into a shadowed crater at the moon's south pole in October 2009 in a hunt for water ice, which it found.

NASA launched the $504 million LRO spacecraft in June 2009 along with a piggyback probe called LCROSS. "The LROC map products being released over the next week will not only serve the lunar science community for years to come, but also provide a roadmap for human exploration of our nearest neighbor," LROC principal investigator Mark Robinson, of Arizona State University, said in a statement. Also released werehigher resolution maps of selected parts of the moon, which were stitched together from observations taken by LROC's two Narrow Angle Cameras, researchers said.Īnd there are more moon maps and mosaics yet to come. When taken altogether, LRO's seven science instruments delivered more than 192 terabytes of data in the new release - enough to fill about 41,000 DVDs, NASA officials said.Īmong the new LROC data products is a global lunar map with a resolution of 100 meters per pixel. The LROC observations are just one small part of a huge mound of orbiter data released on March 14. The new image was built using data from LRO's Wide Angle Camera, one of the three imaging tools on the spacecraft's main Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Camera (LROC). But basaltic volcanism was much more limited on the far side, and as a result the region sports just a few isolated maria, researchers said. Widespread basaltic plains called "maria," deposited by volcanic activity long ago, cover much of the near side.

Since then, scientists have learned that the far side of the moon is a very different place than the near side.