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Emily S. Costello

Publications and source records attributed to Emily S. Costello.

2 recordsLinked to original sources

Lunar Reflective Interferometry

We present the method of lunar reflection interferometry (LRI) in which a virtual interferometer can be formed by using a spacecraft-borne antenna in lunar orbit that receives both direct rays and those reflected from the lunar surface. The technique exploits the method of images and is akin to the classic "sea cliff" interferometer, with the Moon's surface, primarily the lunar Maria, replacing the ocean surface. We describe the method in detail, demonstrate that significant portions of the Moon's surface are sufficiently smooth at low radio frequencies, $ν\lesssim 10\,\mathrm{MHz}$, for the technique to work, and outline a spacecraft instrument implementation. We describe potential systematic errors and how they could be mitigated. We present several astrophysics applications of the method.

astro-ph.IM

Gardening on the Moon: An Advection-Diffusion Model to Guide the Search for Supernova Debris in the Lunar Regolith

The vertical redistribution of materials in the lunar regolith - ranging from continuously produced space-weathering products to sporadic pulses of supernova- or kilonova-derived isotopes - remains a fundamental problem in planetary science. We present a unified stochastic model of regolith gardening induced by the impact flux. Treating gardening as a competition between impact-driven advection and diffusion predicts the maturity profiles of Apollo cores over more than two orders of magnitude in time ($1.4 \times 10^7$ to $4.5 \times 10^8$ years). This model describes well the depth profiles of live Fe60 in Apollo regolith samples, suggesting that supernova dust capture is independent of native iron abundance, and is consistent with a uniform influx at the latitudes of the Apollo landing sites. We extend our model to predict lunar signals for live r-process species that might originate from supernovae or kilonovae: Pu244 tied to terrestrial detections, and I129, Hf182, and Cm247 based on r-process calculations. The Pu244/Fe60 depth profile can probe the origin of Pu244, motivating searches in Artemis regolith samples down to depths O(100) cm.

astro-ph.EP