The Global Distribution of Water and Hydroxyl on the Moon as Seen by the Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M3)

Abstract

The Moon Mineralogy Mapper (M ^3 ) on the Chandrayaan-1 spacecraft provided nearly global 0.5–3 μ m imaging-spectroscopy data at 140 m pixel ^–1 in 85 spectral bands. Targeted locations were imaged at 70 m pixel ^–1 and higher spectral resolution. These data enable a detailed look at the mineralogy, hydroxyl, and water signatures exposed on the lunar surface. We find evidence for multiple processes, including probable solar wind implantation, excavation of hydroxyl-poor and water-poor material in cratering events, excavation of hydroxyl and water-rich materials from depth and global trends with rock type and latitude. Some water-rich areas display sharp boundaries with water-poor rocks but have a diffuse halo of hydroxyl surrounding the water-rich rocks indicating a weathering process of destruction of water, probably due to a regolith gardening process. Mapping for specific mineralogy shows evidence for absorptions near 2.2 μ m, probably associated with smectites, and near 1.9 μ m due to water. Lunar swirls are confirmed to be OH-poor, but we also find evidence that swirls are water-poor based on a weak 1.9 μ m water band. Some swirls show enhanced pyroxene absorption. “Diurnal” signatures are found with stable minerals. Pyroxene is shown to exhibit strong band depth changes with the diurnal cycle, which directly tracks the solar incidence angle and is consistent with changing composition and/or grain size with depth. Mapping of M ^3 data for the presence of iron oxides (e.g., hematite and goethite) is found to be a false signature in the M ^3 data due to scattered light in the instrument.

Keywords

• The Moon
• Lunar composition
• Lunar maria
• Lunar highlands
• Lunar regolith
• Infrared spectroscopy