Related papers: PyNAPLE: Lunar Surface Impact Crater Detection
Crater counting on the Moon and other bodies is crucial to constrain the dynamical history of the Solar System. This has traditionally been done by visual inspection of images, thus limiting the scope, efficiency, and/or accuracy of…
This paper contains the results from the first 30 months of the NELIOTA project for impacts of NEOs/meteoroids on the lunar surface. Our analysis on the statistics concerning the efficiency of the campaign and the parameters of the…
We compare the number of lunar craters larger than 15 km across and younger than 1.1 Ga to the estimates of the number of craters that could have been formed for 1.1 Ga if the number of near-Earth objects and their orbital elements during…
With NASA's planned return to the moon and possibly with lunar outposts being formed, repeated landings at the same site will be necessary. Understanding rocket plume interaction with lunar and Martian surfaces is of paramount importance in…
The Earth--Moon system has been experiencing impacts from asteroids and comets for billions of years. The Moon, as an airless body, has preserved a distinct record of these events in form of impact craters and ejecta deposits, offering…
We formulate the lunar cratering distribution and verify the cratering asymmetries generated by the main-belt asteroids (MBAs) as well as the near-Earth objects (NEOs). Based on a planar model that excludes the terrestrial and lunar…
Impact craters, as "lunar fossils", are the most dominant lunar surface features and occupy most of the Moon's surface. Their formation and evolution record the history of the Solar System. Sixty years of triumphs in the lunar exploration…
We calculate the current spatial distribution of projectile delivery to the Earth and Moon using numerical orbital dynamics simulations of candidate impactors drawn from a debiased Near-Earth-Object (NEO) model. Surprisingly, we find that…
The variation of remotely sensed neutron count rates is measured as a function of cratercentric distance using data from the Lunar Prospector Neutron Spectrometer. The count rate, stacked over many craters, peaks over the crater centre, has…
We present the technical specifications and first results of the ESA-funded, lunar monitoring project "NELIOTA" (NEO Lunar Impacts and Optical TrAnsients) at the National Observatory of Athens, which aims to determine the size-frequency…
We report the first analysis of a flash produced by the impact of a meteoroid on the lunar surface and recorded both in the near-infrared and in the visible. Despite the fact that similar data have been recently published by other team…
Recent lunar crater studies have revealed an asymmetric distribution of rayed craters on the lunar surface. The asymmetry is related to the synchronous rotation of the Moon: there is a higher density of rayed craters on the leading…
The transfer of material between planetary bodies due to impact events is important for understanding planetary evolution, meteoroid impact fluxes, the formation of near-Earth objects (NEOs), and even the provenance of volatile and organic…
Crater ellipticity determination is a complex and time consuming task that so far has evaded successful automation. We train a state of the art computer vision algorithm to identify craters in Lunar digital elevation maps and retrieve their…
Planetary impact events eject large volumes of surface material. Crater excavation processes are difficult to study, and in particular the details of individual ejecta fragments are not well understood. A related, enduring issue in…
Laboratory made granular-granular impact craters have been used as model analogues of planetary impact craters. These kind of craters have been observed and studied using profilometry techniques that allow to retrieve important morphologic…
It is known that most of the craters on the surface of the Moon were created by the collision of minor bodies of the Solar System. Main Belt Asteroids, which can approach the terrestrial planets as a consequence of different types of…
We discuss here a lunar impact flash recorded during the total lunar eclipse that occurred on 2019 January 21, at 4h 41m 38.09 +- 0.01 s UT. This is the first time ever that an impact flash is unambiguously recorded during a lunar eclipse…
The discoveries of two Interstellar Objects (ISOs) in recent years has generated significant interest in constraining their physical properties and the mechanisms behind their formation. However, their ephemeral passages through our Solar…
Impact crater cataloging is an important tool in the study of the geological history of planetary bodies in the Solar System, including dating of surface features and geologic mapping of surface processes. Catalogs of impact craters have…