A mass concentration in a celestial body with higher gravitational pull than its surroundings, causing an uneven or distorted gravitational field.
Questions tagged [mascon]
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At what magnitude of planetary mass are Mascons a problem for orbiting spacecraft?
Earth's mass is about 1E+25 kg, the Sun about 2E+30 kg, and the Moon is only around 7E+22. Lunar orbit has well known problems with mascons and while the earth still has perturbations due to mascons, they are seemingly more benign (addtl).
Example…
Magic Octopus Urn
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Is there an "inverse" gravity gradient map for space?
Ive found a lot of images of the moon identifying gmascons all over the moon due to different surface features and densities. Most of them look like this:
I'm wondering if you could take a map like this, and a map of Earth, then create a gradient…
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