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Is the Moon really as smooth as a billiard ball? Remarks concerning recent models of sputter‐fractionation on the lunar surface
Author(s) -
Hapke Bruce,
Cassidy William
Publication year - 1978
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl005i004p00297
Subject(s) - sputtering , astrobiology , solar wind , fractionation , geology , regolith , materials science , physics , plasma , chemistry , thin film , nanotechnology , nuclear physics , organic chemistry
Two recent discussions of chemical and isotopic fractionation by solar wind sputtering ( Pillinger et al ., 1976; Switkowski et al ., 1977) are not applicable to the moon because the authors have failed to include major effects caused by the real geometry of the lunar surface. The complex reentrant micromorphology of the lunar soil drastically affects sputter‐fractionation because most of the sputtered species do not leave the moon, but strike surfaces which are partially shielded from further sputtering. At these sites fractionation is effectively controlled by desorption and angular sputtering effects rather than by sputtering yields. The mass ratio of matter which has been sputter‐deposited to that in the sputter‐altered transition layers on individual grains exceeds 100∶1.