GRAIL’s ‘Bouguer’ Gravity Moon Map

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Caption:

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This movie shows the "Bouguer" gravity of Earth's moon based on data from NASA's Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) and topography from the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter's Lunar Orbiter Laser Altimeter. Bouguer gravity is what remains from the gravity field when the attraction of surface topography is removed, and therefore represents mass anomalies inside the moon due to either variations in crustal thickness or crust or mantle density. The prominent nearside circular highs (in red) indicate the well-known mass concentrations or "mascons,"but many similar newfound far-side features are also visible.

Background Info:

NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., manages the GRAIL mission for NASA's Science Mission Directorate in Washington. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, is home to the mission's principal investigator, Maria Zuber. GRAIL is part of the Discovery Program managed at NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Ala. Lockheed Martin Space Systems in Denver built the spacecraft. The California Institute of Technology in Pasadena manages JPL for NASA.

For more information about GRAIL, please visit http://grail.nasa.gov .

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