Authors
Moe Matsuoka, Tomoki Nakamura, Takahiro Hiroi, Satoshi Okumura, Sho Sasaki
Publication date
2020/2/20
Journal
The Astrophysical Journal Letters
Volume
890
Issue
2
Pages
L23
Publisher
IOP Publishing
Description
Micrometeoroid bombardments are one of the causes of space weathering on airless bodies. We have simulated micrometeoroid bombardments on the surfaces of C-type asteroids by pulse-laser irradiation experiments on Murchison CM2 chondrite samples. In this Letter, we focus in particular on the effect of lower-energy irradiation compared to our previous study, where the laser energy range was set to 5–15 mJ, causing spectral flattening and water absorption band suppression. Murchison powder samples were irradiated with pulse lasers of various laser intensities (0.7, 1, 2, and 5 mJ). The irradiation energies are equivalent to micrometeoroid bombardments on the main-belt asteroids for∼ 5.7× 10 7 yr for 5 mJ and∼ 7.9× 10 6 yr for 0.7 mJ, respectively. We measured reflectance spectra and analyzed chemical compositions and microstructures of the surface of the laser-irradiated Murchison samples. Laser …
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