Regolith Processes on Eros

Details Regolith Processes on Eros Regolith Processes on Eros

Dec 2001

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2001agufm.p32b0558p&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2001, abstract #P32B-0558

Physics

6008 Composition, 6025 Interactions With Solar Wind Plasma And Fields, 6040 Origin And Evolution, 6061 Remote Sensing

Scientific paper

Surfaces of planetary bodies exposed to the space environment for millions to billions of years are inevitably altered in physical and/or chemical characteristics. Considerable insight into the character of regolith processes on airless bodies has recently been gained from the detailed study of lunar soils with modern equipment (X-ray digital imaging, SEM, TEM, ferromagnetic resonance, and vis-to-nearIR spectroscopy). The optical properties of Eros, for example, are well modeled by the spaceweathering of ordinary chondrite material that is associated with accumulation of reduced nano-phase iron on soil grains (Pieters et al., MAPS, 2000; Hapke JGR, 2001). A principal contrast between a body such as Eros and the Moon, of course, is the enormous difference in their gravity field and this must play a critical role in determining the character of the regolith. It is hypothesized that creation and redistribution of the fine particles, which dominate regolith optical properties (e.g. Pieters et al., JGR 1993), are not entirely governed by excavation and gravity redistribution on Eros. Instead, fine particle motion is governed by electrostatic forces associated with the arid environment and linked to the presence of nanophase reduced iron. Electrical conductivity of lunar soils, for example, varies by more than 4 orders of magnitude when exposed to sunlight even at 100K (Alvarez, PLSC8th 1977). If such an effect is also present in asteroidal soils, it provides an electrostatic charging mechanism across the rapidly moving terminator. This could account for the presence and apparent mobility (and ponding?) of fine material across the surface.

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