Investigating the effects of space weathering on carbon-rich asteroidal regoliths through analysis of experimental analogs
Creators: name: Laczniak, Dara
Publisher: name: Purdue University Graduate School
Year: 2023
Subjects: classificationCode: 510107
subject: Planetary science (excl. solar system and planetary geology)

description: Space weathering refers to the gradual spectral, microstructural, and chemical alteration of airless planetary regoliths due to their exposure to the harsh environment of outer space. Solar wind irradiation and micrometeoroid impacts are the primary space weathering processes at work in our solar system. Although the microstructural and compositional effects of space weathering are small, occurring at the sub-micron scale in individual regolith grains, their collective impact on the spectral signature of planetary surfaces is critical. Space weathering is known to change the slope, albedo, and strength of absorption band features of reflectance spectra acquired by ground- and spacecraft-based instrumentation. In this way, space weathering impedes our ability to determine planetary surface compositions from remote sensing data and pair meteorites with their parent bodies. Thanks to decades of research since the Apollo sample return missions, the planetary science community has developed a comprehensive understanding of how space weathering alters the Moon and silicate-rich asteroids. However, the effects of space weathering on primitive, carbon-rich asteroids—which dominate the outer main belt—are more poorly constrained and very complex. This dissertation aims to improve our understanding of how solar wind irradiation and micrometeoroid bombardment modifies the spectral, microstructural, and chemical properties of carbonaceous asteroidal regoliths. To accomplish this goal, this research experimentally simulates constituent space weathering processes in the laboratory on carbon-rich analog materials. A multi-faceted analytical approach including a variety of electron microscopy and spectroscopic techniques is used to probe the spectral, microstructural, and chemical changes induced by experimental space weathering.Chapter 1 of this dissertation provides an introduction to space weathering, including a description of the current state of knowledge in the field as well as the motivation for this research. Similarly, chapter 2 provides an overview of the various experimental simulations and coordinated analytical techniques employed in this work. Chapter 3 initiates the discussion of research accomplished during this doctoral program, presenting a detailed characterization of the spectral, microstructural, and chemical effects derived from simulated solar wind irradiation of a carbonaceous asteroid analog material. More specifically, in chapter 1, I perform high flux (~1013 ions/cm2/s), high fluence (1018 ions/cm2) 1 keV H+ and 4 keV He+ irradiation experiments on the Murchison meteorite. Chapter 2 investigates the role of incident ion flux in solar wind space weathering of carbonaceous asteroidal regolith by performing a set of low flux (~1011 ions/cm2/s) and high flux (~1013 ions/cm2/s) H+ and He+ irradiation experiments on Murchison samples. These experiments are the lowest flux solar wind simulations carried out, to date. Finally, chapter 5 presents results from the first <i>combined</i> ion irradiation and heating experiments performed on a carbon-rich analog using in situ transmission electron microscopy (TEM). In situ TEM is a relatively novel technique in the planetary and geological sciences which allows users to observe the physiochemical changes caused by an external stimuli in <i>real time</i>. The experimental approach used in chapter 5 simulates both solar wind irradiation and micrometeoroid impacts, and, thus, probes the cumulative microstructural and compositional modifications induced by these concurrent space weathering processes. In chapters 3 through 5, I compare my results to previous space weathering simulations and observations of lunar and asteroidal returned samples. Findings from this dissertation advance the existing model of space weathering on carbon-rich asteroids, help inform remote sensing observations from the Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx missions which have rendezvoused with C-complex asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, respectively, and provide experimental ground-truth for analyzing returned samples from these missions.