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Volume 60 Supplement 4

Special Issue: Lunar Science with the SELENE “Kaguya” Mission-Prelaunch Studies-

Complexities of gamma-ray line intensities from the lunar surface

Earth, Planets and Space volume 60, pages 313–319 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Assuming different abundances of the Apollo lunar soil samples and the average spectrum of galactic cosmic ray protons, energy spectra of neutrons and gamma rays and emission rates of gamma-ray lines from major elements have been estimated by using the reviewed Monte Carlo simulation library Geant4 and nuclear data. Previously, such libraries were not able to reproduce gamma-ray lines properly for the planetary application. Results clearly show that the emission rate of gamma rays heavily depends not only on the chemical abundance but also neutron flux within the lunar subsurface. While the intensities of gamma-ray lines are mostly proportional to elemental abundances, the intensity per unit elemental abundance can vary. Such a complex correlation is attributed to the change in neutron flux within the lunar subsurface and petrological restriction of elemental variation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Research Institute for Science and Engineering, Waseda University, 3-4-1 Okubo, Shinjuku, Tokyo, 169-8555, Japan

    Naoyuki Yamashita, Nobuyuki Hasebe, Takashi Miyachi, Osamu Okudaira, Shingo Kobayashi, Takeshi Ishizaki, Kunitomo Sakurai & Mitsuhiro Miyajima

  2. Nippon Medical School, 2-297-2 Kosugicho, Nakahara, Kawasaki, Kanagawa, 211-0063, Japan

    Masanori Kobayashi

  3. Institute of Meteoritics, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM, 87131-1126, USA

    Robert C. Reedy

  4. Centre d’Etude Spatiale des Rayonnements, 9 avenue Colonel Roche, B.P. 4346, 31028, Toulouse cedex 4, France

    Claude d’Uston, Sylvestre Maurice & Olivier Gasnault

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  1. Naoyuki Yamashita
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  2. Nobuyuki Hasebe
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  3. Takashi Miyachi
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  4. Masanori Kobayashi
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Correspondence to Naoyuki Yamashita.

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Yamashita, N., Hasebe, N., Miyachi, T. et al. Complexities of gamma-ray line intensities from the lunar surface. Earth Planet Sp 60, 313–319 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03352796

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Key words

  • Gamma ray
  • neutron
  • lunar and planetary spectroscopy
  • moon
  • GRS
  • SELENE