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2.2.1 Lunar Microcraters and Interplanetary Dust Fluxes

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Jack B. Hartung
Jack B. Hartung*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Space Sciences, State university of New York at Stony Brook, Stony Brook, New York 11794, U. S. A.

Abstract

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Conflicting data for depth-to-diameter ratios for lunar microcrater pits do not permit firm conclusions for distribution of meteoroid densities. The majority of meteoroids have equidimensional shapes. Meteoritic metal spherules have been detected in a small fraction of impact pit glasses, but contribution of meteoroidal material to most pit glasses is small to negligible. Impact pits less than 0.1 microns in diameter (impacting particle mass ~ 10−16 grams) have been observed. Size distributions -9 for microcrater pits less than 50 microns in diameter (particle mass < 10−9 grams) measured on different, samples differ significantly. An inflection in the cumulative size distribution curve at a diameter between 1 and 10 microns (particle masses between 10−14 and 10−11 grams) appears real, supporting the idea of a two-component model for the interplanetary dust. Data for the arrival direction of meteoroids at the moon are inconclusive.

Type
2 In Situ Measurements of Interplanetary Dust
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 31: Interplanetary Dust and Zodiacal Light , 1976 , pp. 209 - 226
Copyright
Copyright © Springer-Verlag 1976

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