Thermal Infrared Spectra of Lunar Soils

Properties of the Hermean regolith: V. New optical reflectance spectra, comparison with lunar anorthosites, and mineralogical modelling

“…Infrared spectra of Mercury, combined with laboratory studies of terrestrial, lunar and meteoritic materials (e.g., Salisbury et al, 1997;Burbine et al, 2002;Cooper et al, 2002;Hinrichs and Lucey, 2002), indicate that the rock composition is dominated by feldspars and low-iron pyroxene or olivine with little evidence for ultramafic basalts, primarily interpreted from the locations of Christiansen emissivity maxima and transparency features. Specifically, calcium-rich labradorite, bytownite and anorthite feldspars, augite and diopside clinopyroxenes, hypersthene and enstatite orthopyroxenes, and forsteritic olivine, have been suggested in a number of spectra from different locations on the planet (e.g., Sprague and Roush, 1998;Cooper et al, 2001;Sprague et al, 2002).…”

Optical spectroscopic characterizations of laser irradiated olivine grains

“…In contrast, space weathering effects on reflectance bands at longer wavelengths caused by thermal lattice vibrations are less well studied, but may contain rich information on space weathered minerals (Lucey et al 2016). Early studies before modern space weathering simulations were carried out show that space weathering causes little mid-infrared (MIR) spectral changes (Salisbury et al 1997), though this view was challenged recently (Lucey et al 2016). …”

SIMBIO-SYS: The spectrometer and imagers integrated observatory system for the BepiColombo planetary orbiter

“…The observed hermean surface spectra, combined with laboratory studies of terrestrial, lunar and meteoritic materials (Cooper et al, 2001;Burbine et al, 2002;Hinrichs and Lucey, 2002;Salisbury et al, 1997), suggest that feldspars and low-iron pyroxene or olivine with little evidence for ultramafic basalts are the most common materials. The identification of nearly featureless lunar spectra as anorthosite (Spudis et al, 1984) and its similarity to the spectrum of Mercury (Fig.…”