Phase reddening on asteroid Bennu from visible and near-infrared spectroscopy

S Fornasier,J D P Deshapriya,X.-D Zou,A Praet,P H Hasselmann,D S Lauretta,E A Cloutis,F Merlin,B E Clark,A Simon,J.-Y Li,V E Hamilton,M A Barucci

doi:10.1051/0004-6361/202039552

Abstract

Context.The NASA mission OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) has been observing near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu in close proximity since December 2018. In October 2020, the spacecraft collected a sample of surface material from Bennu to return to Earth.Aims.In this work, we investigate spectral phase reddening – that is, the variation of spectral slope with phase angle – on Bennu using spectra acquired by the OSIRIS-REx Visible and InfraRed Spectrometer (OVIRS) covering a phase angle range of 8–130°. We investigate this process at the global scale and for some localized regions of interest (ROIs), including boulders, craters, and the designated sample collection sites of the OSIRIS-REx mission.Methods.Spectra were wavelength- and flux-calibrated, then corrected for the out-of-band contribution and thermal emission, resampled, and finally converted into radiance factor per standard OVIRS processing. Spectral slopes were computed in multiple wavelength ranges from spectra normalized at 0.55μm.Results.Bennu has a globally negative spectra slope, which is typical of B-type asteroids. The spectral slope gently increases in a linear way up to a phase angle of 90°, where it approaches zero. The spectral phase reddening is monotonic and wavelength-dependent with highest values in the visible range. Its coefficient is 0.00044μm−1 deg−1in the 0.55–2.5μm range. For observations of Bennu acquired at high phase angle (130°), phase reddening increases exponentially, and the spectral slope becomes positive. Similar behavior was reported in the literature for the carbonaceous chondrite Mukundpura in spectra acquired at extreme geometries. Some ROIs, including the sample collection site, Nightingale, have a steeper phase reddening coefficient than the global average, potentially indicating a surface covered by fine material with high micro-roughness.Conclusions.The gentle spectral phase reddening effect on Bennu is similar to that observed in ground-based measurements of other B-type asteroids, but much lower than that observed for other low-albedo bodies such as Ceres or comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. Monotonic reddening may be associated with the presence of fine particles at micron scales and/or of particles with fractal structure that introduce micro- and sub-micro roughness across the surface of Bennu.

Highlights

OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) is a NASA sample return mission devoted to the study of the primitive near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu
The spacecraft collected a sample from Nightingale in October 2020, The spacecraft carries a suite of instruments including scientific imaging cameras (OCAMS, the OSIRIS-REx Camera Suite), spectrometers (OVIRS, the OSIRIS-REx Visible and InfraRed Spectrometer, 0.4–4.3 μm; OTES, the OSIRIS-REx Thermal Emission Spectrometer, 5.5–100 μm; and REXIS, the Regolith X-Ray Imaging Spectrometer), and a scanning lidar system (OLA, the OSIRIS-REx Laser Altimeter), in addition to the sampling device (Lauretta et al 2017)
We investigate the phase reddening effect from OVIRS spectra of the global Bennu surface and of some local regions of interest (ROIs), including boulders, craters, and the four candidate sampling sites

Summary

Introduction

OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer) is a NASA sample return mission devoted to the study of the primitive near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu. Phase reddening is a common behavior observed on many Solar System objects, including asteroids (Taylor et al 1971; Clark et al 2002; Magrin et al 2012; Ciarniello et al 2017; Longobardo et al 2018; Li et al 2019, 2015; Sanchez et al 2012; Perna et al 2018; Lantz et al 2017), comets (Fornasier et al 2015; Ciarniello et al 2015; Longobardo et al 2017), the Moon (Gehrels et al 1964), Mercury (Warell & Bergfors 2008), and planetary satellites (Nelson et al 1987; Cuzzi et al 2002; Filacchione et al 2012) This phenomenon has been attributed to multiple scattering at intermediate to high phase angles and/or small-scale surface roughness, its investigation helps to constrain the physical properties, in terms of particle size and roughness, of the surface of Bennu.

June 2019

B2 B3 B4 B5

Spectral phase reddening and phase function parameters

Discussion

Conclusions