Lunar interior properties from the GRAIL mission

Abstract

Abstract The Gravity Recovery and Interior Laboratory (GRAIL) mission has sampled lunar gravity with unprecedented accuracy and resolution. The lunar GM, the product of the gravitational constant G and the massM, is very well determined. However, uncertainties in the mass and mean density, 3345.56±0.40 kg/m3, are limited by the accuracy of G. Values of the spherical harmonic degree-2 gravity coefficients J2 and C22, as well as the Love number k2 describing lunar degree-2 elastic response to tidal forces, come from two independent