Itokawa is Heterogeneous in Albedo and Color: Space Weathering on Small Asteroids.

Details Itokawa is Heterogeneous in Albedo and Color: Space Weathering on Small Asteroids. Itokawa is Heterogeneous in Albedo and Color: Space Weathering on Small Asteroids.

Sep 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006dps....38.6802s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #38, #68.02; Bulletin of the American Astronomical Society, Vol. 38, p.620

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

HAYABUSA is a Japanese asteroid mission aiming at sample return from (25413) Itokawa. In 2005, it observed Itokawa by Asteroid Multiband Imaging CAmera (AMICA) and Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS). AMICA with 7 narrow-band filters observed the whole surface of Itokawa with the solar phase angle around 10 degree with nominal resolution 70cm. The highest resolution during touch down phase is less than 1cm. The small (550m) asteroid Itokawa is heterogeneous in both color and albedo. The brightness difference is as high as 30% on close-up images. Brighter areas are usually situated at locally elevated zones and at gravitationally steep zones. Brighter areas are bluer and darker areas are redder in color. Darker areas are usually covered with numerous boulders, whereas bright areas which have less boulders would be exposed basement. Medium (10-20cm) to high (1cm) resolution images show strong evidence that bright surface was formed by removal of the superposed dark boulder rich layer. A typical example is Shirakami and rim region around Little Woomera basin. Compared with color observation and experimental data, we consider darker materials have higher degree of space weathering.
To investigate a possibility of weathering of rocky surface, we irradiate pulse laser (simulating space weathering by micrometeorite impact heating) on meteorites NWA1794 (LL5), NWA1799 (LL5) and Bensour (LL6). Rocky meteorite surfaces are darkened and reddened by space weathering simulation, like particulate surface. We consider that the darker boulder-rich zone of Itokawa is made up with dark boulders with weathered coating. Bright, bluer and fresh areas were exposed by removal of dark weathered surfaces by seismic shaking caused by impacts or planetary encounters. Small (sub-km) less-regolith silicate asteroids may also change its albedo and color by space weathering and they would show albedo/color heterogeneity.

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