Young, rock-rich surfaces should have high thermal inertias, while old, rock poor surfaces should have low thermal inertias. By comparing the thermal inertias of volcanic features to impact craters of known ages, we may be able to confirm the existence of very recent volcanic activity on the Moon. This is a cooperative project between AFRL, the Hawaii Institute of Geology and Geophysics, the IfA, NASA, and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The image is a mosaic of 72x73 individual LWIR images, each 200 x 200 pixels, from the AEOS lunar eclipse data set. The portion shown here is of the part of the Moon experiencing total eclipse and variations in thermal inertia are clearly shown.
Bright spots are fresh impact craters which have strewn large blocks on the lunar surface.
Subtle variations in the background are due to age differences between lunar surface units.