Space Weathering of Rocky Regoliths

Details Space Weathering of Rocky Regoliths Space Weathering of Rocky Regoliths

Sep 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009dps....41.2611b&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, DPS meeting #41, #26.11

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astronomy

Scientific paper

Airless bodies, such as the Moon, Mercury and asteroids are weathered by the solar wind and micrometeorites, which affect the composition, structure, and optical properties of their surfaces. We will report on our laboratory studies on changes in composition and optical reflectance of minerals bombarded with 4 keV He ions simulating the solar wind and ns UV laser pulses simulating micrometeorite impacts.
The experiments were done in ultrahigh vacuum and the surface composition and optical reflectance were measured without removing the samples from vacuum.
We will show how exposure of irradiated surfaces to air and some sample preparation techniques can invalidate laboratory studies of space weathering.
Our experiments show that metallic iron particles, which affect the optical properties of irradiated powders, can be formed directly on ion irradiated surfaces, without the need to invoke redeposition of sputtered ejecta. We will compare our results to previous experiments, and give estimates of timescales for weathering.
This work has been supported by NASA Cosmochemistry and LASER program.

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