Tag Archive for 'GRAIL'

The South Pole-Aitken Basin on the lunar far side is one of the largest and oldest impact features in the Solar System. It’s easily seen in the elevation data. The low center is dark blue and purple. Mountains on its edge, remnants of outer rings, are red and yellow. Image credit: NASA / GSFC / University of Arizona.

Mysterious Mass of Material Discovered Beneath Moon’s South Pole-Aitken Basin

Jun 11, 2019 by News Staff

The South Pole-Aitken basin — the largest crater in the Solar System — is a gigantic impact structure on the far side of the Moon. Data from...

Global map of the albedo from the 750 nm filter of the UV-VIS camera onboard NASA’s Clementine spacecraft. The image shows the near side and far side of the Moon in Lambert, equal-area projection. Image credit: NASA.

Moon’s Nearside-Farside Asymmetries are Result of Ancient Giant Impact, Says New Study

May 23, 2019 by News Staff

The Moon has striking asymmetries between its nearside and farside in topography, crustal thickness, and composition. A new study, published in the Journal...

A new map of the thickness of the Martian crust shows less variation between thicker regions (red) and thinner regions (blue), compared to earlier mapping. This view is centered on Valles Marineris, with the Tharsis Montes near the terminator to its west. The map is based on modeling of Mars’ gravity field by Goossens et al. Image credit: NASA / Goddard / UMBC / MIT / E. Mazarico.

Martian Crust is Relatively Porous, Planetary Scientists Find

Sep 15, 2017 by News Staff

A team of researchers led by Dr. Sander Goossens of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center has found evidence that the crust of the Red Planet is not as...

Earhart Crater: Newly-Discovered Lunar Crater Named after Legendary American Pilot

Mar 18, 2015 by News Staff

Planetary scientists using data from NASA’s Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission have discovered a 124-mile-wide crater on the nearside...

Top: the full Moon as seen from the Earth, with the Procellarum border structures superimposed in red. Image credit: Kopernik Observatory / NASA / Colorado School of Mines / MIT / JPL / Goddard Space Flight Center. Bottom: global maps of lunar properties – topography and gravity gradient. Image credit: Jeffrey C. Andrews-Hanna et al.

Planetary Researchers Solve Mystery of Moon’s Oceanus Procellarum

Oct 2, 2014 by News Staff

According to a new study led by Prof Maria Zuber of MIT, Oceanus Procellarum – a vast mare on the western edge of the Moon’s near side –...