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THE MOON HAS BEEN A MAJOR FOCUS IN PLANETARY SCIENCE. THE OBSERVATION THAT TERRESTRIAL AND LUNAR ROCKS HAVE STRIKINGLY SIMILAR ISOTOPIC RATIOS CONTRIBUTED TO THE NOW LEADING HYPOTHESIS THAT THE MOON FORMED BY A GIANT IMPACT. ADDITIONALLY THE OBSERVATION THAT LUNAR ROCKS ARE GENERALLY DEPLETED IN VOLATILES RELATIVE TO THE EARTH HAS MOTIVATED STUDIES THAT SUGGEST THAT VOLATILES WERE PREFERENTIALLY REMOVED FROM THE PROTOLUNAR MATERIAL AS THE MOON FORMED (E.G. CANUP ET AL. 2015). HOWEVER RECENT MEASUREMENTS SUGGEST THAT AT LEAST PORTIONS OF THE MOON WERE INITIALLY WATER-RICH WITH PERHAPS EARTH-LIKE VOLATILE CONTENTS (E.G. HAURI ET AL. 2015). UNRAVELING HOW THE MOON S VOLATILE CONTENT RELATES TO ITS FORMATION BY A GIANT IMPACT REMAINS AN OPEN AND IMPORTANT QUESTION OF IMPORTANCE TO FUTURE LUNAR EXPLORATION. THE ONLY OTHER TERRESTRIAL MOONS ARE MARS MOONS PHOBOS AND DEIMOS. ORIGINALLY THESE MOONS WERE THOUGHT TO BE GRAVITATIONALLY CAPTURED ASTEROIDS BASED ON THE SIMILARITY OF THEIR SPECTRA TO THOSE OF D-TYPE ASTEROIDS. HOWEVER INTACT CAPTURE IS DIFFICULT TO RECONCILE WITH THE SMALL INCLINATIONS AND ECCENTRICITIES OF THE MOONS ORBITS. RECENT STUDIES INSTEAD SUGGEST THAT PHOBOS AND DEIMOS ACCRETED FROM A DISK PRODUCED BY A LARGE IMPACT (E.G. CANUP&SALMON 2018) WHICH CAN NATURALLY EXPLAIN THEIR REGULAR ORBITS. HOWEVER WE STILL LACK A CLEAR CONNECTION BETWEEN THESE ORIGIN HYPOTHESES AND OBSERVABLE QUANTITIES THAT WOULD ALLOW US TO DISTINGUISH BETWEEN THEM. OF PARTICULAR IMPORTANCE IS WHETHER THE MOONS WOULD BE EXPECTED TO BE VOLATILE RICH IF THEY FORMED BY AN IMPACT. UNDERSTANDING THIS QUESTION WILL BE KEY TO DETERMINING THEIR MODE OF ORIGIN BASED ON ANTICIPATED RESULTS FROM THE FUTURE SAMPLE RETURN MISSION MARTIAN MOONS EXPLORATION (MMX) AND TO DETERMINING THEIR RESOURCES FOR POTENTIAL FUTURE EXPLORATION. MOREOVER VOLATILE LOSS BY IMPACT DURING THE PLANETARY ACCRETION STAGE MAY HAVE SIGNIFICANT CONSEQUENCES ON THE CHEMICAL AND ISOTOPIC COMPOSITIONS OF PLANETARY BODIES. THE CAUSE OF THE OBSERVED DEPLETION OF VOLATILE ELEMENTS AND ENRICHMENT IN ISOTOPICALLY HEAVY ELEMENTS WITHIN DIFFERENTIATED BODIES HAS BEEN ACTIVELY DEBATED. THIS COULD HAVE BEEN CAUSED BY PARTIAL MELTING AND VAPORIZATION DURING THE MOON-FORMING IMPACT (NORRIS AND WOOD 2017) OR VOLATILE LOSS DURING THE ACCRETION STAGE (HIN ET AL. 2017). THUS A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE BEHAVIOR OF VOLATILES DURING IMPACTS MAY PROVIDE IMPROVED CONSTRAINTS ON EARLY PLANET FORMATION CONDITIONS AND TIMING OF VOLATILE DELIVERY. WE PROPOSE TO INVESTIGATE VOLATILE LOSS/RETENTION DURING AND AFTER LARGE IMPACTS BASED ON HYDRODYNAMIC SIMULATIONS. PREVIOUSLY WE HAVE FOUND THAT VOLATILE LOSS TO SPACE IS NEGLIGIBLE FROM A HYDROSTATIC AND CIRCULAR LUNAR-FORMING DISK (NAKAJIMA&STEVENSON 2018) HOWEVER VOLATILE LOSS COULD OCCUR BEFORE THE SYSTEM REACHES A HYDROSTATIC STATE ESPECIALLY IF THE EJECTA SPEED IS LARGE. WE WILL HERE INVESTIGATE VOLATILE ESCAPE DURING THE VERY EARLY STAGES OF AN IMPACT WHEN EJECTA IS ON ON HIGHLY ECCENTRIC ORBITS AND PREDICT CHEMICAL AND ISOTOPIC SIGNATURES EXPECTED IN THE MOON. FOR MARS WE WILL CONSIDER THE CONSEQUENCES OF AN IMPACT ORIGIN FOR PHOBOS-DEIMOS. OUR PRELIMINARY CALCULATIONS ON VOLATILE ESCAPE FROM A MARTIAN MOON-FORMING DISK SUGGEST THAT WATER AND SODIUM VAPOR WOULD HAVE BEEN VULNERABLE TO ESCAPE IN THE FIRST 10 HOURS AFTER THE IMPACT. WE PREDICT THAT WATER VAPOR WOULD ESCAPE BEFORE IT ADIABATICALLY COOLED SUFFICIENTLY TO CONDENSE WHEREAS SODIUM VAPOR WOULD HAVE CONDENSED BEFORE IT ESCAPED FROM THE MARTIAN GRAVITATIONAL WELL THUS ALLOWING SODIUM TO EVENTUALLY BE INCORPORATED IN THE MOONS. CONSEQUENTLY THE BULK WATER ABUNDANCES OF PHOBOS AND DEIMOS MAY DIFFERENTIATE AMONG THE ORIGIN HYPOTHESES WITH IMPACT-INDUCED MOONS BEING DRY WHEREAS GRAVITATIONALLY CAPTURED MOONS COULD BE AS WATER-RICH. FINALLY WE WILL ESTIMATE VOLATILE LOSS FROM A GROWING PLANETESIMALS AND PROTOPLANETS UNDERGOING LARGE IMPACTS.

$374,087FY2020National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

University Of Rochester, Rochester NY

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