The rate and causes of lunar space weathering: Insights from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera ultraviolet observations

Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter Wide Angle Camera global ultraviolet and visible imaging provides a unique opportunity to examine the rate and causes of space weathering on the Moon. Silicates typically have a strong decrease in reflectance toward UV wavelengths (<~450 nm) due to strong bands at 250 nm and in the far UV. Metallic iron is relatively spectrally neutral, and laboratory spectra suggest that its addition to mature soils in the form of submicroscopic iron (also known as nanophase iron) flattens silicate spectra, significantly reducing spectral slope in the ultraviolet. Reflectance at ultraviolet wavelengths may be especially sensitive to the surface coatings that form due to exposure to space weathering because scattering from the surfaces of grains contributes a larger fraction to the reflectance spectrum at short wavelengths. We find that the UV slope (as measured by the 320/415 nm ratio) is a more sensitive measure of maturity than indexes based on visible and near-infrared wavelengths. Only the youngest features (less than ~100 Ma) retain a UV slope that is distinct from mature soils of the same composition. No craters >20 km have UV slopes that approach those observed in laboratory spectra of fresh lunar materials (powdered lunar rocks). While the 320/415 nm ratio increases by ~18% from powdered rocks to mature soils in laboratory samples, Giordano Bruno, the freshest large crater, only shows a 3% difference between fresh and mature materials. At the resolution of our UV data (400 m/pixel), we observe some small (<5 km) craters that show a ~14% difference in 320/415 nm ratio from their mature surroundings. UV observations show that Reiner Gamma has had significantly lower levels of space weathering than any of the Copernican craters we examined, and was the only region we found with a UV slope that approached laboratory values for fresh powdered rock samples. This is consistent with the hypothesis that its high albedo is due to magnetic shielding from solar wind sputtering effects. Furthermore the observation that all Copernican craters we examined show some degree of space weathering and the extreme immaturity of Reiner Gamma materials show that space weathering of the surface and the resultant modification of UV spectra proceeds at a fast rate and is dominated by solar wind sputtering. Comparisons of the UV trends on other airless bodies (i.e., asteroids and Mercury) may prove fruitful for understanding the relative rates and causes of space weathering across the inner solar system.