Re-analysis of previous laboratory phase curves: 2. Connections between opposition effect morphology and spectral features of stony meteorites

We investigate connections between the opposition phase curves and the spectra from ultraviolet to near infrared wavelengths of stony meteorites. We use two datasets: the reflectance dataset of Capaccioni et al. ([1990] Icarus, 83, 325), which consists of optical phase curves (from 2° to 45°) of 17 stony meteorites (three carbonaceous chondrites, 11 ordinary chondrites, and three achondrites), and the spectral dataset from the RELAB database consisting of near-ultraviolet to near-infrared spectra of the same meteorites. We re-analyzed the first dataset and fit it with two morphological models to derive the amplitude A, the angular width HWHM of the surge and the slope S of the linear part. Our re-analysis confirms that stony meteorites have a non-monotonic behavior of the surge amplitude with albedo, which is also observed in planetary surfaces (Déau et al. [2013] Icarus, 226, 1465), laboratory samples (Nelson et al. [2004] Proc. Lunar Sci. Conf., 35, p. 1089) and asteroids (Belskaya and Shevchenko [2000] Icarus, 147, 94). We find a very strong correlation between the opposition effect morphological parameters and the slope of the spectra between 0.75 μm and 0.95 μm. In particular, we found that meteorites with a positive amplitude-albedo correlation have a positive spectral slope between 0.75 μm and 0.95 μm, while meteorites with a negative amplitude-albedo correlation have a negative spectral slope between 0.75 μm and 0.95 μm. We have ruled out the role of the meteorite samples' macro-properties (grain size, porosity and macroscopic roughness) in the correlations found because these properties were constant during the preparation of the samples. If this hypothesis is correct, this implies that other properties like the composition or the micro-properties (grain inclusions, grain shape or microscopic roughness) could have a preponderant role in the non-monotonic behavior of the surge morphology with albedo at small and moderate phase angles. Further accurate characterization of carbonaceous chondrites samples are necessary to draw conclusions about the role of the micro-properties.