Simple devices for concentration of microbial life: Experiments in Haughton impact structure

Simple devices that create environments with high levels of light and moisture could attract extant microbial life on a planetary surface and hence enhance the detection of it. Experience in the Haughton crater shows that this can occur readily

Surfaces for micrometeoroid impact crater detection

Surfaces for micrometeroid impact crater detectio

In situ detection of boron by ChemCam on Mars

We report the first in situ detection of boron on Mars. Boron has been detected in Gale crater at levels Curiosity rover ChemCam instrument in calcium-sulfate-filled fractures, which formed in a late-stage groundwater circulating mainly in phyllosilicate-rich bedrock interpreted as lacustrine in origin. We consider two main groundwater-driven hypotheses to explain the presence of boron in the veins: leaching of borates out of bedrock or the redistribution of borate by dissolution of borate-bearing evaporite deposits. Our results suggest that an evaporation mechanism is most likely, implying that Gale groundwaters were mildly alkaline. On Earth, boron may be a necessary component for the origin of life; on Mars, its presence suggests that subsurface groundwater conditions could have supported prebiotic chemical reactions if organics were also present and provides additional support for the past habitability of Gale crater

Mapping Terrestrial Impact Craters with the TanDEM-X Digital Elevation Model

The TanDEM-X mission generates a global digital elevation model (DEM) with unprecedented properties. We use it for mapping confirmed terrestrial impact craters as listed in the Earth Impact Database. Both for simple and complex craters detailed investigations of the morphology of the particular structure and of the surrounding terrain can be performed

Recognition of landslides in lunar impact craters

Landslides have been observed on several planets and minor bodies of the solar System, including the Moon. Notwithstanding different types of slope failures have been studied on the Moon, a detailed lunar landslide inventory is still pending. Undoubtedly, such will be in a benefit for future geological and morphological studies, as well in hazard, risk and suscept- ibility assessments. A preliminary survey of lunar landslides in impact craters has been done using visual inspection on images and digital elevation model (DEM) (Brunetti et al. 2015) but this method suffers from subjective interpretation. A new methodology based on polynomial interpolation of crater cross-sections extracted from global lunar DEMs is presented in this paper. Because of their properties, Chebyshev polynomials were already exploited for para- metric classification of different crater morphologies (Mahanti et al., 2014). Here, their use has been extended to the discrimination of slumps in simple impact craters. Two criteria for recognition have provided the best results: one based on fixing an empirical absolute thresholding and a second based on statistical adaptive thresholding. The application of both criteria to a data set made up of 204 lunar craters’ cross-sections has demonstrated that the former criterion provides the best recognition