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The Interplanetary Micrometeoroid Flux and Lunar Primary and Secondary Microcraters

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

H.A. Zook ,
G. Lange ,
E. Grün  and
H. Fechtig
H.A. Zook
Affiliation:
NASA--Johnson Space Center, Houston, Texas, U.S.A.
G. Lange
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Postfach 10 39 80 6900 Heidelberg, F.R.G.
E. Grün
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Postfach 10 39 80 6900 Heidelberg, F.R.G.
H. Fechtig
Affiliation:
Max-Planck-Institut für Kernphysik, Postfach 10 39 80 6900 Heidelberg, F.R.G.

Abstract

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We are gaining an increased awareness and understanding of Earth-orbiting space debris. Meteoroid experiments in near-Earth orbit must therefore now be able to differentiate between interplanetary meteoroids and space debris. Space debris impacts are not thought, however, to have significantly affected near-Earth meteoroid measurements carried out in the early 1960’s. New experimental evidence also makes it appear very probable that most impact pits on lunar rocks with pit diameters smaller than 7 micrometers have been generated by lunar secondary ejecta impacts, and not by primary meteoroid impacts. In addition, ages determined from solar flare tracks in lunar rocks are not considered secure. Lunar crater production rates are more reliably deduced from meteoroid space experiments and not from solar flare track ages. When all of the above qualifications are taken into account, however, a rather satisfactorily self-consistent meteoroid flux versus mass distribution is obtained.

Type
II. Interplanetary Dust: Space and Ground Studies
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 85: Properties and Interactions of Interplanetary Dust , 1985 , pp. 89 - 96
Copyright
Copyright © Reidel 1985

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