Determination of Relative Ages of Lunar Craters by Albedo and Polarization Measurements

Abstract

ONE of the most important tasks in selenology is to establish the relative ages of different parts of the lunar crust. It may be argued that, during the lifetime of a crater, its floor would be darkened at a uniform rate by the destructive effects of ultra-violet light on the rock crystals. The empirical relationship : may be fitted to the albedo (ρ) measurements of Markov and Fedorets¹, where Δ is the diameter of a crater in kilometres.