水星未来探测计划——信使号,出发!

在大约40亿年前太阳系形成的早期,年轻的水星表面被陨星撞击得布满凹痕,使水星第一眼看上去很像月球。因为没有风或者水改变它的坑洼地貌,水星从那时起实际上就一直保持原样没有变化。因此,天文学家们认为,了解水星和它的形成是了解其它地外行星和它们演化的基础。 为了进一步了解水星这颗奇特的星球,美航宇局计划2004年发射信使号——星空间环境地面化学和广泛搜索计划。项目科学家希望,探测器的发现不仅能够有助于了解水星,而且能揭示地球和其他类地行星的形成。     

月球仍然活跃的构造、火成和内部特征等证据

月球尽管被作为类地行星演化的最终形态的代表,被认为在25亿年前已经完全冷却,根据阿波罗时 代以来、特别是近十余年的月球轨道器和着陆器获得的关于月球构造、火成活动、月震和内部结构等多种证据,表明月球从深层内部到表面仍然活跃,尚未彻底冷却“死亡”。这将完全改变人们关于月球演化历史和状态的观念。     

一个月诞生月球

迄今为止，关于月球的形成原因，有许多假说，但最主要的假说只有4种：第一种是认为月球是地球的一部分物质形成的“母子说”；第二种是“捕获说”，这种说法认为，月球是太阳系内某处形成的某种天体在接近地球时，被地球的引力所捕获形成的；第三种是“兄弟说”，这种说法认为，地球和月球几乎于同时在太阳系中形成；第四种说法是大碰撞说。这种说法认为，月球是地球遭到火星大小的天体碰撞后，四散的碎片最终形成了的。     

月球仍然活跃的构造、火成和内部特征等证据（英文）

月球尽管被作为类地行星演化的最终形态的代表,被认为在25亿年前已经完全冷却,根据阿波罗时代以来、特别是近十余年的月球轨道器和着陆器获得的关于月球构造、火成活动、月震和内部结构等多种证据,表明月球从深层内部到表面仍然活跃,尚未彻底冷却"死亡"。这将完全改变人们关于月球演化历史和状态的观念。     

火星探测发展历程与未来展望

火星作为距地球最近的类地行星之一,火星探测是继月球探测之后深空探测的最大热点。在简要总结人类火星探测历程与未来发展趋势的基础上,对未来的火星探测规划任务及其面临的主要关键技术进行了重点论述,并给出了相应启示和发展展望;结合我国深空探测能力,并对中国后续开展火星探测活动提出了相关的建议。     

月球成因新说

月球成因新说今天发表的一项研究报告说，月球可能是在数十亿年前由地球和一颗体积３倍于火星的巨大行星相撞之后形成的。这项由美国天文学会发表的研究报告说，地球与一颗“胡作非为的星球”相撞可能使地球上面几层足够多的物质汽化，从而形成了月球。科罗拉多大学的研究...     

在月球上我们将赢得世界杯

如果2106年的世界杯足球赛在月球上举行，西班牙队一定能取得比在今年的世界杯上更好的成绩。 如果在月球上举办世界杯，我们一定能看到更激烈更精彩的比赛。由于月球上的重力只有地球的1／6，足球到了月球的重量只相当于地球上的1／6，随随便便踢一脚球部可能成为“重炮”。因此可以预想一下，月球上足球场地的长度应该是地球上的6倍，只有600多米的长度才能适应月球上的“长传球”。     

月球的电离层之谜

没有大气层的世界,怎么会有电离层?别怀疑,月球就是有办法做到!研究月球的科学家对于月球为何会有电离层已经伤透了脑筋,但是现在,这个问题或许有了答案。首先来谈谈何谓电离层。电离层是大气层被太阳射线电离的部分,它是磁层的内界。每个有大气层的类地行星都有电离层。在这些岩质行星的     

外星生命到底长啥样？

自美国天文学家宣布已在距地球1200光年的天琴座开普勒62恒星系统中发现了两颗和地球最为相似的类地行星后，许多天文学家相信，在银河系的某些类地行星上存在生命几乎是确定无疑的事情，发现天外生命只不过是时间问题。     

热烈欢迎:寻觅可居住的行星

正麻省理工学院行星科学和物理学教授萨拉·西格说:"如果我们能够识别出另一颗类似地球的行星,从起初认为一切均围绕着我们地球旋转,到如今知道存在着很多其他类地行星,这就形成一个完整的认识过程。"在我们的太阳系之外找到数千颗行星被认为是人类探索     

Study of the Moon and comparative planetology: Problems and perspectives

On the base of the comparative planetologic study of the Moon and terrestrial planets two fundamental features of their history and structure have been established.Firstly, shell-like structure of the terrestrial planets could be understood only in the terms of the heterogeneous accretion theory. At the final stages of major terrestrial planet formation the leading role belonged to the planetosimals of carbonaceous chondritic composition. Secondly, there are two types of the crust on the planetary surface. Their formation are considered to be independent and differing in the geological time. The primary planetary crust of predominantly feldspathic composition is considered to form during the pregeologic period at the final stage of planetary formation due to the impact-explosive processes. The hydrosphere and atmosphere is thought to appear contemporaneously. The basaltic planetary crust is forming later due to the radioactive decay and superimposed on the primary feldspathic crust.     

Hybrid method for crater detection based on topography reconstruction from optical images and the new LU78287GT catalogue of Lunar impact craters

Impact craters are ubiquitous and well-studied structures of high geological relevance on the surfaces of the Earth’s Moon, the terrestrial planets, the asteroids and the satellites of the outer planets. Therefore, it is not surprising that crater detection algorithms (CDAs) are one of the most studied subjects of image processing and analysis in lunar and planetary science. In this paper we are proposing a Hybrid CDA: a modified DEM (digital elevation map) reconstruction method used as a step in an existing CDA based on Hough transform. The new Hybrid CDA consists of: (1) reconstruction of topography from optical images using a shape from shading approach; (2) utilization of the DEM-based CDA; (3) correction of brightness and contrast of optical images used in order to be more suitable for evaluation of detections. An additional result of this work is a new method for evaluation of topography reconstruction algorithms, using a DEM-based CDA and an earlier approach for evaluation of CDAs. The new Hybrid CDA was tested using two Chandrayaan-1 Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M³) images and two excerpts of the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) Wide Angle Camera (WAC) global optical image mosaic. As a result, the number of craters inside these four regions increased considerably from 1754 (as available in the previous LU60645GT catalogue) to 19 396 craters (as available in the resulting new LU78287GT catalogue). This confirmed the practical applicability of the new Hybrid CDA, which can be used in order to considerably extend current crater catalogues.     

Radioactivity of the Moon and planets

In this report the main results of the study of radioactivity of the solar sistem bodies are considered. The radioactivity of the Moon and planets was measured by means of vehicles in situ. The radioactivity of the lunar samples, brought to the Earth was studied with laboratory equipment.     

Surface temperatures at the nearside of the Moon as a record of the radiation budget of Earth’s climate system

Understanding the balance between incoming radiation from the Sun and outgoing radiation from Earth is of critical importance in the study of climate change on Earth. As the only natural satellite of Earth, the Moon is a unique platform for the study of the disk-wide radiation budget of Earth. There are no complications from atmosphere, hydrosphere, or biosphere on the Moon. The nearside of the Moon allows for a focus on the solar radiation during its daytime, and on terrestrial radiation during its nighttime. Additionally, lunar regolith temperature is an amplifier of the terrestrial radiation signal because lunar temperature is proportional to the fourth square root of radiation as such is much more sensitive to the weak terrestrial radiation in nighttime than the strong solar radiation in daytime. Indeed, the long-term lunar surface temperature time series obtained inadvertently by the Heat Flow Experiment at the Apollo 15 landing site three decades ago may be the first important observation from deep space of both incoming and outgoing radiation of the terrestrial climate system. A revisit of the lunar surface temperature time series reveals distinct characteristics in lunar surface daytime and nighttime temperature variations, governed respectively by solar and terrestrial radiation.     

Monitoring the moon's transient atmosphere with an all-sky imager

An indispensable tool in terrestrial aeronomy, all-sky imaging has recently been shown to be useful in studies of the Moon's exosphere. Two days after the peak of the 1998 Leonid meteor shower, an extended region of neutral sodium emission was detected in the night sky using a bare-CCD imaging system. The feature was found to be a train of sodium gas originating from the Moon. Subsequent observations indicate the feature is normally visible (max. brightness ∼15–90 Rayleighs (R)) during nights near the time of new Moon. Monthly monitoring of the feature using an all-sky system can provide useful information about the time-variability of the lunar atmosphere. Several processes are believed to be responsible for the production of lunar Na and evidence is presented indicating that two of these processes were each responsible for the observed brightness enhancements of the sodium feature on two separate new Moon periods in January and March 2000.     

Large-scale impact cratering on the terrestrial planets

Impact cratering as a geologic process on the terrestrial planets is addressed. The crater densities on the Earth and Moon form the basis for a standard flux-time curve, which can be used to date unsampled planetary surfaces and constrain the temporal history of endogenic geologic processes. The attached uncertainties and the shape of the flux curve (a rapid exponential decay for the period 4.6 – 4.0 by, followed by the establishment of a constant fluid by 3.5 – 3.0 by which continues more or less to the present) are such that only very old (3.8 by) and very young ( 1.0 by) surfaces can be dated with some confidence. Dating of intermediate-aged surfaces is more imprecise; a problem which is most significant for the geologic history of Mars.

The cratering mechanics of simple craters are fairly well understood. A transient cavity of roughly parabolic cross-section results from the combined excavation and displacement of the target rocks by the cratering flow-field, which can be approximated by the Z-model derived from shallow-buried explosive events. The walls of the transient crater are unstable and slump inwards, resulting in a final bowl-shaped crater partially filled by breccia. The formation process of larger, shallow complex structures is less well understood. Recent models favor the complete collapse of the initial cavity, with the dynamic uplift of the excavated cavity floor. Regardless of the driving force for uplift, yield strength of the target rocks must be drastically reduced during cavity modification by an, as yet, imprecisely known process.

The formation of large impact basins had a profound effect on planetary evolution. They define the basic tectonic and stratigraphic framework of the Moon and their secondary effects lasted for 10⁸ y. The evidence is less compelling from other planets, but a general feature appears to be the concentration of later endogenic activity in and around basins. On Earth, it is possible that basin-formation contributed to the establishment of the dichotomy between proto-continental and proto-oceanic crusts. The effects of impact continue into recent geologic history and may be linked to major biological changes on Earth, such as at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary.     

The problems of simulation of planetary systems accumulation processes

Evolution of a system consisting of a great number of bodies that are gravitationally interacting and aggregating in contacts is considered. Body motions take place in the gravitational field of a central massive body (Sun or planet) in the same plane and at the initial time of system evolution orbits of all bodies are circular. It is shown that during evolution of the protoplanetary cloud, ring zones of matter rarefaction and condensation develop. Development of the condensation zones leads to the formation of planets, the most part of which acquire a direct rotation about their axes. In the case under consideration, approximate agreement between the law of planetary distances and that of geometric progression takes place as it is observed in planetary and satellite systems. The formation of the terrestrial planets and Jovian planets has been simulated. The principal numerical results have been obtained through digital simulation of planetary accumulation.     

类地行星金属与硅酸盐分离机制的初步探讨

太阳星云的化学分馏和冷凝物质的吸积作用是形成类地行星原始金属核和原始硅酸盐幔的主要原因,在类地行星的演化过程中看来存在过原始金属核和原始硅酸盐幔之间的金属-硅酸盐的进一步调整。随着星体内部温度的不断增高,这种调整的机制可能是金属的热扩散;金属及金属-硫化物的部份熔融;金属-硫化物-硅酸盐的完全熔融和分异。这种调整的结果,使原始金属核里的少量硅酸盐被排到核外的硅酸盐幔中去,而原始硅酸盐幔中原先含有的金属和硫化物组分也将不断下沉而加入到原始内核中去。调整的最终结果导致了类地行星现有核-幔结构的形成。      

Fundamental studies concerning planetary quarantine in space.

If there is a possibility that the organisms carried from Earth to space can live for a significant period on planets, the contamination of planets should be prevented for the purpose of future life-detection experiments. In connection with quarantine for interplanetary missions, we have examined the survivabilities of terrestrial microorganisms under simulated space conditions. In this study, examined the survivabilities of terrestrial organisms under simulated Mars conditions. The Mars conditions were simulated by ultraviolet (UV) and proton irradiation under low temperature, high vacuum, and simulated gaseous conditions. After exposure to the simulated Mars condition, the survivabilities of the organisms were examined. The spores of Bacillus subtilis and Aspergillus niger, some anaerobic bacterias and algaes, showed considerably high survivabilities even after UV and proton irradiation corresponding to 200 years on Mars. This subject is not restricted to academic curiosity but concerns problems involving the contamination of Mars with terrestrial organisms carried by space-probes.