New lunar mascon model explains moon's gravity anomalies

[jim mcnamara]

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/early/2013/05/29/science.1235768

This is the result of fine-grained mapping of the gravity anomalies on the moon. They propose a bulls-eye model of impacts to account for the anomalies.

I'm not competent to judge. The idea appears interesting to me.

 

[D H]

Whether the lunar mascons were a result of impacts, volcanic activity, or both, or maybe even something else has been long debated. It's interesting that gravity signatures alone provide the signs that (apparently) resolve this debate, and even more interesting that GRAIL had the sensitivity to detect those signatures.

I guess the answer has to be impacts, volcanic activity, and something else. Impacts alone cannot explain those mascons because the far side of the Moon is nearly void of mascons but is chock full of craters. I suspect that there has to be some connection between the prevalence of mascons on the near side and the widely disparate crust thickness on the near side versus that on the far side.