General Question Lunar Mare

[Izack]

I noticed that Orbiter has a 'non-spherical gravity sources' function. Does this model regions of higher gravity do to planet density, such as the dark heavy spots (Lunar maria) on the Moon?

 

[Piper]

No, this is for simulating the effect of oblation (the fact that planets are wider at their equators then their poles).

 

[Izack]

Aw, crud. I was hoping to look at examining orbit perturbations, but I guess there's no need for that now.
Back to Jupiter for more weird gravity experiments!
Thanks for the help.

 

[Urwumpe]

Aw, crud. I was hoping to look at examining orbit perturbations, but I guess there's no need for that now.
Back to Jupiter for more weird gravity experiments!
Thanks for the help.

It does the orbit perturbations, but Orbiters current gravity terms are not accurate enough for modeling the mascons. mascons and mare are BTW, not the same.

 

[Izack]

It does the orbit perturbations, but Orbiters current gravity terms are not accurate enough for modeling the mascons. mascons and mare are BTW, not the same.

Not the same, but related. Mascons (I'm not sure if it's plural or singular...it's an abbreviation...one mascon, two mascons?) is/are a higher concentration of mass in one area of a planet that results in a positive anomaly in its gravity well. The lunar maria are specific examples of this.
This is still better than my first idea for looking at perturbations in Orbiter, which involved orbiting Phobos. That certainly went well. :lol:

 

[DaveS]

Mascon is an abbreviation of mass-concentration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_concentration_%28astronomy%29

 

[Urwumpe]

Mascon is an abbreviation of mass-concentration: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mass_concentration_(astronomy)

Exactly. Some mare on the moon are indications of mascons, others are not.

 

[Turbinator]

Check this website out, you can specify any 4 corners on Earth, and get a gravity anomaly map for it:
http://www.serg.unicam.it/Gravity.htm


Here is an interesting one on Earth:
http://we.vub.ac.be/~dglg/Web/Claeys/Web-Chix/ICDP-Chix/Figures/Fig4.html