TARGETED SPECTRAL OBSERVATIONS OF MERCURY DURING THE THIRD MESSENGER FLYBY

Details TARGETED SPECTRAL OBSERVATIONS OF MERCURY DURING THE THIRD MESSENGER FLYBY TARGETED SPECTRAL OBSERVATIONS OF MERCURY DURING THE THIRD MESSENGER FLYBY

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufm.p23d..05i&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #P23D-05

Mathematics

Logic

[5410] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Composition, [5470] Planetary Sciences: Solid Surface Planets / Surface Materials And Properties, [6235] Planetary Sciences: Solar System Objects / Mercury

Scientific paper

During the third MESSENGER flyby of Mercury on 29 September 2009, the Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Composition Spectrometer (MASCS) conducted a series of targeted observations of the planet’s surface designed to measure spectral characteristics of terrains exhibiting different albedo and maturity. The flyby ground track was similar to that of the second Mercury flyby on 6 October 2008, but during the third flyby the spacecraft was rotated and pivoted to allow the instrument boresight to target and track specific targets for up to 35 seconds at a time. Geologic targets were selected on the basis of size and geologic interest. This strategy permitted multiple point spectra (300-1450 nm) to be gathered by the Visible and Infrared Spectrograph (VIRS) component of MASCS at each target, and a single point spectrum (116-350 nm) to be gathered by the Ultraviolet and Visible Spectrometer (UVVS) at each of nine different targets, with two of those targets observed twice. For areally extensive features (geologically uniform on the scale of tens of kilometers) given targets were observed by both VIRS and UVVS simultaneously. The targets selected represent geologic end-members on the basis of multispectral imaging completed during the second flyby. The targets chosen include bright crater ejecta facies in three locations and ray materials from the still-unnamed crater currently identified as “radar feature B”. The interior of the 150-km-diameter Lermontov crater was targeted because imaging from flyby 2 showed indications of past pyroclastic volcanism. This is the first MASCS observation of pyroclastic material. In addition, data for low-reflectance material (LRM) and intermediate plains (IP) were acquired. The LRM and IP targets were chosen, as representatives of two of the major identified terrain types on Mercury. Both the interior of Lermontov and the IP target were observed at two different viewing geometries in order to better assess the photometric properties of these materials. Analyses of data from UVVS and VIRS are being combined with and related to multispectral and high-resolution imaging collected by the Mercury Dual Imaging System to provide detailed geologic context to these spectral observations.

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