A probe on Mercury used for the purpose of "surface-space-environment-geochemistry-and-ranging" abbreviated as the MESSENGER mission to Mercury, resulted in the discovery of geological structures known as hollows. Such landforms are quintessentially extraterrestrial with no close counterpart on the airless silicate bodies. Astrogeologists had used multispectral images and geochemical measurements via probes to show how hollows formed by the disintegration of volatile-bearing minerals.
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Hollows' average spectra. (A) Average spectra obtained for each group of hollows (continuous lines) and each host crater floor (dashed lines). These spectra are used for spectral modeling (see Materials and Methods). (B) Representation of Mercury Atmospheric and Surface Spectrometer (MASCS)/Visible and Infrared Spectrograph (VIRS) footprints (ob3_13276_093728) used in the Hopper impact crater (EN0223616383M; 49 m per pixel). The hollow spectra exhibit a strong concave curvature between 300 and 600 nm and higher reflectance as expected. Credit: Science Advances (2023). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.add6452 In a new report published in Science Advances, Océane Barraud and a research team at the Sorbonne University in Paris and France, and the European Space Astronomy Center Spain, studied the mineralogical composition of hollows by using near ultraviolet to near-infrared spectra obtained from MESSENGER. The team compared the reflectance spectra of hollows by using laboratory spectra of Mercury's analogs. The hollows were enriched with sulfides than those derived from the chemical measurements of Mercury's high-reflectance smooth plains. Mercury's analogs During the study, Barraud and colleagues used a Mercury atmospheric and surface composition spectrometer, and visible infrared spectroscopy reflectance spectra of hollows located in the Eminescu, Hopper, Tyagraja and Warhol impact craters. The observations indicated specific materials formation in the structures, alongside a still expanding bright halo. Using thermal modeling, the researchers showed the hollow-forming phase to have been produced through thermal decomposition of sulfides in the low-reflectance material. The research team proposed graphite as a potential component responsible to form the geographical features, while existing…