Microimaging spectroscopy and scanning electron microscopy of Northwest Africa 8657 shergottite: Interpretation of future in situ Martian data
P. Manzari, S. De Angelis, M. C. De Sanctis, G. Agrosì, G. Tempesta
Meteorit Planet Sci. . doi:10.1111/maps.13221
“Microimaging spectroscopy is going to be the new frontier for validating reflectance remote sensed data from missions to solar system bodies. In this field, microimaging spectroscopy of Martian meteorites can provide important and new contributions to interpret data that will be collected by next instruments onboard rover missions to Mars, such as for example Exomars‐2020/Ma_MISS spectrometer. In this paper, a slab from the Northwest Africa (NWA) 8657 shergottite was studied using the SPectral IMager (SPIM) microimaging spectrometer, in the visible‐infrared (VIS‐IR) range, with the aim to subsequently validate the spectral data by means of different independent techniques. The validation was thus carried out, for the first time, comparing SPIM spectral images, characterized by high spatial and spectral resolution, with mineralogical–petrological analyses, obtained by scanning electron microscopy (SEM). The suitability of the SPIM resolution to detect and map augite, pigeonite, maskelynite, and other minor phases as calcite, Ca‐phosphates, and troilite/pyrrhotite with no loss of information about mineral distribution on the slab surface, was ascertained. The good agreement found between spectral and mineralogical data suggests that spectral‐petrography of meteorites may be useful to support in situ investigations on Martian rocks carried out by MaMiss spectrometer during Exomars2020 mission. Moreover, micro spectral images could be also useful to characterize, in a nondestructive way, Martian meteorites and other rare minerals occurring in meteorites. The results obtained in this work represent not only a methodological contribution to the study of meteorites but furnish also elements to reconstruct the history of this sample. The finding of zoned pyroxene, symplectitic texture, amorphous phases as maskelynite, and Fe‐merrillite permits us to hypothesize four stages, i.e., (1) igneous formation of rimmed pyroxenes and other minerals, (2) retrograde metamorphism, (3) shock by impact, and (4) secondary minerals by terrestrial contamination.”
