Related papers: The Moon turns out to be the perfect object to use…
Accurate estimation of cratering asymmetry on the Moon is crucial for understanding Moon evolution history. Early studies of cratering asymmetry have omitted the contributions of high lunar obliquity and inclination. Here, we include lunar…
Analyses of Lunar Laser Ranging data show that the spin-symmetry axis of the Moon is ahead of its expected Cassini state by an angle of $\phi_p$ = 0.27 arcsec. This indicates the presence of one or more dissipation mechanisms acting on the…
Forming the Moon by a high-angular momentum impact may explain the Earth-Moon isotopic similarities, however, the post-impact angular momentum needs to be reduced by a factor of 2 or more to the current value (1 L_EM) after the Moon forms.…
The extensive application of surfactants motivates comprehensive and predictive theoretical studies that improve our understanding of the behaviour of these complex systems. In this study, an expression for the elastic free-energy density…
The Moon is traditionally thought to have coalesced from the debris ejected by a giant impact onto the early Earth. However, such models struggle to explain the similar isotopic compositions of Earth and lunar rocks at the same time as the…
Multiple nations are planning activity on the Moon's surface, and to deconflict lunar operations we must understand the sandblasting damage from rocket exhaust blowing soil. Prior research disagreed over the scaling of the erosion rate,…
The observed presence of water molecules in the dayside lunar regolith was an unexpected discovery and remains poorly understood. Standard thermophysical models predict temperatures that are too high for adsorbed water to be stable. We…
A high-angular momentum giant impact with the Earth can produce a Moon with a silicate isotopic composition nearly identical to that of Earth's mantle, consistent with observations of terrestrial and lunar rocks. However, such an event…
A number of synchronous moons are thought to harbor water oceans beneath their outer ice shells. A subsurface ocean frictionally decouples the shell from the interior. This has led to proposals that a weak tidal or atmospheric torque might…
Prevailing models for the formation of the Moon invoke a giant impact between a planetary embryo and the proto-Earth \citep{Canup_2004, Cuk_Stewart_2012}. Despite similarities in the isotopic and chemical abundances of refractory elements…
Aims. An asymmetric dust cloud was detected around the Moon by the Lunar Dust Experiment on board the Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer mission. We investigate the dynamics of the grains that escape the Moon and their…
We formulated tidal decay lifetimes for hypothetical moons orbiting extrasolar planets with both lunar and stellar tides. Previous work neglected the effect of lunar tides on planet rotation, and are therefore applicable only to systems in…
The leading theory for the origin of the Moon is the giant impact hypothesis, in which the Moon was formed out of the debris left over from the collision of a Mars-sized body with the Earth. Soon after its formation, the orbit of the Moon…
This paper shows how the exposure of the Moon to the Earth's plasmasheet is subject to decadal variations due to lunar precession. The latter is a key property of the Moon's apparent orbit around the Earth - the nodes of that orbit precess…
The angular momentum of the Earth-Moon system was initially dominated by Earth's rotation with a short solar day of around 5 hours duration. Since then, Earth gradually transferred angular momentum through tidal friction to the orbit of the…
Due to tidal interactions in the Earth-Moon system, the spin of the Earth slows down and the Moon drifts away. This recession of the Moon is now measured with great precision, but it has been realized, more than fifty years ago, that simple…
Recent high-precision measurements of the isotopic composition of lunar rocks demonstrate that the bulk silicate Earth and the Moon show an unexpectedly high degree of similarity. This is inconsistent with one of the primary results of…
We present fully three-dimensional equations to describe the rotations of a body made of a deformable mantle and a fluid core. The model in its essence is similar to that used by INPOP (Integration Plan\'{e}taire de l'Observatoire de…
Jupiter's moon Europa has a thin icy crust which is decoupled from the mantle by a subsurface ocean. The crust thus responds to tidal forcing as a deformed membrane, cold at the top and near melting point at the bottom. In this paper I…
The Moon is known to have a small liquid core, and it is thought that in the distant past the core may have produced strong magnetic fields recorded in lunar samples. Here we implement a numerical model of lunar orbital and rotational…