Evidence for a Localized Source of the Argon in the Lunar Exosphere
Evidence for a Localized Source of the Argon in the Lunar Exosphere
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月球外逸层中氩气局部来源的证据
DOI:
10.1002/2017je005352
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发表时间:
2017
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
Kegerreis J
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Kegerreis J
We perform the first tests of various proposed explanations for observed features of the Moon's argon exosphere, including models of the following: spatially varying surface interactions; a source that reflects the lunar near‐surface potassium distribution; and temporally varying cold trap areas. Measurements from the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE) and the Lunar Atmosphere Composition Experiment (LACE) are used to test whether these models can reproduce the data. The spatially varying surface interactions hypothesized in previous work cannot reproduce the persistent argon enhancement observed over the western maria. They also fail to match the observed local time of the near‐sunrise peak in argon density, which is the same for the highland and mare regions and is well reproduced by simple surface interactions with a ubiquitous desorption energy of 28 kJ mol−1. A localized source can explain the observations, with a trade‐off between an unexpectedly localized source or an unexpectedly brief lifetime of argon atoms in the exosphere. To match the observations, a point‐like source requires source and loss rates of ∼1.9 × 1021atoms s−1. A more diffuse source, weighted by the near‐surface potassium, requires much higher rates of ∼1.1 × 1022atoms s−1, corresponding to a mean lifetime of just 1.4 lunar days. We do not address the mechanism for producing a localized source, but demonstrate that this appears to be the only model that can reproduce the observations. Large, seasonally varying cold traps could explain the long‐term fluctuation in the global argon density observed by LADEE, but not that by LACE.
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影响因子:
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作者:
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通讯作者:
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影响因子:
10.3
作者:
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通讯作者:
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DOI:
--
发表时间:
2015
期刊:
影响因子:
--
作者:
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影响因子:
5.2
作者:
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通讯作者:
P. Mahaffy
DOI:
10.1088/0004-637x/788/2/169
发表时间:
2014
期刊:
The Astrophysical Journal
影响因子:
--
作者:
N. Schorghofer;O. Aharonson
通讯作者:
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