長谷川 直

Large terrestrial bodies in our solar system like the Earth, Mars, Mercury, and the Moon exhibit geologically complex surfaces with compositional heterogeneity. From past studies using large telescopes and spacecraft, it was shown that asteroids with diameters larger than 100 km also show surface heterogeneity at hemispheric scales, while on smaller objects, such features remain to be detected. Here, we investigate candidates for surface heterogeneity in a sample of 130 main-belt asteroids using multiepoch spectroscopic data from the MIT–Hawaii Near-Earth Object Spectroscopic Survey, which has been observing asteroids for about 20 yr using a self-consistent observation technique. Twelve conservative candidates with spectra more than 3σ apart from each other at 2.4 μm and 52 optimistic candidates for surface heterogeneity are detected. These candidates include eight objects already reported as being heterogeneous. Our study suggests that the size boundary between small homogeneous asteroids and larger heterogeneous objects, if it exists, is lower than 100 km. A-type asteroids have a higher proportion of heterogeneous candidates than other asteroids. This may be because olivine, which is the main surface constituent of these objects, reacts more efficiently to space weathering with respect to pyroxene, such that a similar range of surface ages will translate into a wider range of optical-to-near-infrared spectral slopes in the case of A-type bodies....

Knowledge of the shock remanent magnetization (SRM) property is crucial for interpreting the spatial change in a magnetic anomaly observed over an impact crater. This study conducted two series of impact-induced SRM acquisition experiments by varying the applied field intensity (0-400 μT) and impact conditions. Systematic remanence measurements of cube-shaped subsamples cut from shocked basalt containing single-domain titanomagnetite were conducted to investigate the effects of changes in pressure and temperature on the SRM acquisition. The peak pressure and temperature distributions in the shocked samples were estimated using shock-physics modeling. SRM intensity was proportional to the applied field intensity of up to 400 μT. SRM intensity data for peak pressure and temperature of up to 8.0 GPa and 530 K, respectively, clearly show that it increases with increasing pressure and decreases with increasing temperature. The SRM has unblocking temperature components up to a Curie temperature of 510 K, and it easily demagnetizes with alternating field demagnetization. The observed SRM properties can be explained by the pressure-induced microcoercivity reduction and temperature-induced modification of the blocking curve. Although the remanence acquisition efficiency of the SRM is significantly lower than that of the thermoremanent magnetization (TRM), the magnetic anomaly originating from the SRM distribution in a broader region may show a contribution comparable to that of the impact-induced TRM distribution in a narrow region....