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Production of iron nanoparticles by laser irradiation in a simulation of lunar-like space weathering

Nature volume 410, pages 555–557 (2001)Cite this article

Abstract

‘Space weathering’ is the term applied to the darkening and reddening of planetary surface materials with time, along with the changes to the depths of absorption bands in their optical spectra. It has been invoked to explain the mismatched spectra of lunar rocks and regolith, and between those of asteroids and meteorites1,2,3,4,5,6. The formation of nanophase iron particles on regolith grains as a result of micrometeorite impacts or irradiation by the solar wind has been proposed as the main cause of the change in the optical properties7,8. But laboratory simulations9,10,11,12,13,14 have not revealed the presence of these particles, although nano-second-pulse laser irradiation did reproduce the optical changes12. Here we report observations by transmission electron microscopy of olivine samples subjected to pulse laser irradiation. We find within the amorphous vapour-deposited rims of olivine grains nanophase iron particles similar to those observed in the rims of space-weathered lunar regolith grains15,16. Reduction by hydrogen atoms implanted by the solar wind is therefore not necessary to form the particles. Moreover, the results support the idea that ordinary chondrites came from S-type asteroids5, and thereby provides some constraints on the surface exposure ages of those asteroids.

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Figure 1: Bidirectional reflectance spectra of olivine pellet samples before and after pulse laser irradiation.
Figure 2: Nanophase iron particles in bright-field TEM images of the rim of laser-irradiated olivine grains.
Figure 3: A nanophase particle in the rim of an olivine grain irradiated 20 times at 30 mJ.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Yamada for discussions and help in laser irradiation experiments, J. Owada and H. Akiyama for technical support during reflectance measurements, and H. Nagahara and K. Tomeoka for discussions and support. We thank T. Kogure for preliminary measurements by TEM and K. Akamatsu for technical advice during our TEM measurements. We also thank L. Keller for discussions on TEM analysis. We thank C. R. Chapman and B. E. Clark for their valuable comments. This work was partially supported by a Grant-in-Aid for Science Research from the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan and by a grant from the Inamori Foundation.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth and Planetary Science, The University of Tokyo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Sho Sasaki, Yoshimi Hamabe & Erika Kurahashi

  2. Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Kobe University, Kobe, 657-8501, Japan

    Keiko Nakamura

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, Brown University, Providence, 02912, Rhode Island, USA

    Takahiro Hiroi

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  1. Sho Sasaki
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Correspondence to Sho Sasaki.

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Sasaki, S., Nakamura, K., Hamabe, Y. et al. Production of iron nanoparticles by laser irradiation in a simulation of lunar-like space weathering. Nature 410, 555–557 (2001). https://doi.org/10.1038/35069013

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