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Atti curati da F. Forget, M.A. Lopez-Valverde, M.C. Desjean, J.P. Huot, F. Lefevre, S. Lebonnois, S.R. Lewis, E. Millour, P.L. Read e R.J. Wilson

Laser irradiation experiments have been performed on powdered silicates (othopyroxene, clinopyroxene, and olivine) using a nanosecond pulse UV excimer laser (193 and 248 nm) to simulate the effects of space weathering induced on minor bodies of the Solar System by micrometeorite bombardment. We have used different fluences (from 0.05 to 2 J/cm2) to weather the samples, experimenting below and above the ablation threshold. All the irradiated materials have shown reddening and darkening of their UV–vis-NIR reflectance spectra. In addition we have found that: (1) below ablation threshold, weathering effects increase with increasing number of laser pulses, and with increasing fluence, confirming that a thermal process is active; (2) above ablation threshold, weathering is much stronger and efficient than in the previous case, and is independent on the number of pulses.We show that astrophysical time-scales, i.e. times necessary to obtain similar effects on planetary objects, are of about 108 yr for both olivine and pyroxene in the case of ablation. The time grows up to 1010 yr in the case of thermal effects. We infer that micrometeorite bombardment can be rightly simulated by laser irradiation only considering congruent laser ablation.

Spectra for certain comets show the presence of crystalline silicate dust grains believed to have been incorporated during comet formation. While grain crystallization is widely assumed to result from the thermal annealing of precursor amorphous grains, the physical processes behind the silicate amorphous-to-crystalline transition are poorly understood. This makes it difficult to place constraints on the evolutionary histories of both grains and comets, and consequently, on the nebular conditions in which they formed. It has, therefore, become necessary to study this process in the laboratory using simulated grain materials. In this paper, we discuss recent results from laboratory investigations into a basic amorphous MgSiO3 silicate annealed in the region of 1000 K. Our object is not to model the behavior of dust grains per se, but to study the underlying process of crystallization and separate the physics of the material from the astrophysics of dust grains. In our experiments, we bring together spectroscopic measurements made in the infrared with the high resolution structural probing capabilities of synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction. The combined use of these complementary techniques provides insights into the crystallization process that would not be easily obtained if each was used in isolation. In particular, we focus on the extent to which the identification of certain spectral features attributed to crystalline phases extends to the physical structure of the grain material itself. Specifically, we have identified several key features in the way amorphous MgSiO3 behaves when annealed. Rather than crystallize directly to enstatite (MgSiO3) structures, in crystallographic terms, amorphous MgSiO3 can enter a mixed phase of crystalline forsterite (Mg2SiO4) and SiO2-rich amorphous silicate where structural evolution appears to stall. Spectroscopically, the evolution of the 10 m band does not appear to correlate directly with structural evolution, and therefore, may be a poor indicator of the degree of crystallinity. Indeed, certain features in this band may not be indicators of crystal type. However, the 20 μm band is found to be a good indicator of crystal structure. We suggest that forsterite forms from the ordering of pre-existing regions rich in SiO4 and that this phase separation is aided by a dehydrogenation processes that results in the evolutionary stall. The implications of this work regarding future observations of comets are discussed.