Lunar pure anorthosite as a spectral analog for Mercury

Abstract

Plans are underway for spacecraft missions to the planet Mercury beginning in the latter part of this decade (NASA's MESSENGER and ESA's BepiColombo). Mercury is an airless body whose surface is apparently very low in ferrous iron. Much of the mercurian surface material is expected to be optically mature, a state produced by the "space weathering" process from direct exposure to the space environment. If appropriate analog terrains can be identified on the Moon, then study of their reflectance spectra and composition will improve our understanding of space weathering of low-Fe surfaces and aid in the interpretation of data returned from Mercury by the spacecraft. We have conducted a search for areas of the lunar surface that are optically mature and have very low ferrous iron content using Clementine UVVIS image products. Several regions with these properties have been identified on the farside. These areas, representing mature pure anorthosites (90% plagioclase feldspar), are of interest because only relatively immature pure anorthosites have previously been studied with Earth-based spectrometry. A comparison of Mercury with the lunar analogs reveals similarities in spectral characteristics, and there are hints that the mercurian surface may be even lower in FeO content than the lunar pure anorthosites. We also investigate the potential for use of spectral features other than the commonly studied "1 micrometer" mafic mineral absorption band as tools for compositional assessment when spacecraft spectral measurements of Mercury become available. Most low-Fe minerals plausibly present on Mercury lack absorption bands, but plagioclase possesses an iron-impurity absorption at 1.25 micrometers. Detection of this diagnostic band may be possible in fresh crater deposits.