Mercury's global surface is markedly darker than predicted from its measured elemental composition. The darkening agent, which has not been previously identified, is most concentrated within Mercury's lowest-reflectance spectral unit, the low-reflectance material(1). This low-reflectance material is generally found in large impact craters and their ejecta(2,3), which suggests a mid-to-lower crustal origin. Here we present neutron spectroscopy measurements of Mercury's surface from the MESSENGER spacecraft that reveal increases in thermal-neutron count rates that correlate spatially with deposits of low-reflectance material. The only element consistent with both the neutron measurements and visible to near-infrared spectra(4) of low-reflectance material is carbon, at an abundance that is 1-3 wt% greater than surrounding, higher-reflectance material. We infer that carbon is the primary darkening agent on Mercury and that the low-reflectance material samples carbon-bearing deposits within the planet's crust. Our findings are consistent with the formation of a graphite flotation crust from an early magma ocean(5), and we propose that the heavily disrupted remnants of this ancient layer persist beneath the present upper crust. Under this scenario, Mercury's globally low reflectance results from mixing of the ancient graphite-rich crust with overlying volcanic materials via impact processes or assimilation of carbon into rising magmas during secondary crustal formation.

We report measurements of the flux of fast neutrons at Mercury from 20 degrees S to the north pole. On the basis of neutron transport simulations and remotely sensed elemental compositions, cosmic-ray-induced fast neutrons are shown to provide a measure of average atomic mass, , a result consistent with earlier studies of the Moon and Vesta. The dynamic range of fast neutron flux at Mercury is 3%, which is smaller than the fast-neutron dynamic ranges of 30% and 6% at the Moon and Vesta, respectively. Fast-neutron data delineate compositional terranes on Mercury that are complementary to those identified with Xray, gamma-ray, and slow-neutron data. Fast neutron measurements confirm the presence of a region with high , relative to the mean for the planet, that coincides with the previously identified high Mg region and reveal the existence of at least two additional compositional terranes: a low- region within the northern smooth plains and a high- region near the equator centered near 90 degrees E longitude. Comparison of the fast-neutron map with elemental composition maps show that variations predicted from the combined element maps are not consistent with the measured variations in fast-neutron flux. This lack of consistency could be due to incomplete coverage for some elements or uncertainties in the interpretations of compositional and neutron data. Currently available data and analyses do not provide sufficient constraints to resolve these differences. (C) 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.

Extraterrestrial materials, including meteorites, interplanetary dust, and spacecraft-returned asteroidal and cometary samples, provide a record of the starting materials and early evolution of the Solar System. We review how laboratory analyses of these materials provide unique information, complementary to astronomical observations, about a wide variety of stellar, interstellar and protoplanetary processes. Presolar stardust grains retain the isotopic compositions of their stellar sources, mainly asymptotic giant branch stars and Type II supernovae. They serve as direct probes of nucleosynthetic and dust formation processes in stars, galactic chemical evolution, and interstellar dust processing. Extinct radioactivities suggest that the Sun's birth environment was decoupled from average galactic nucleosynthesis for some tens to hundreds of Myr but was enriched in short-lived isotopes from massive stellar winds or explosions shortly before or during formation of the Solar System. Radiometric dating of meteorite components tells us about the timing and duration over which solar nebula solids were assembled into the building blocks of the planets. Components of the most primitive meteoritical materials provide further detailed constraints on the formation, processing, and transport of material and associated timescales in the Sun's protoplanetary disk as well as in other forming planetary systems.

Orbital data from the MESSENGER mission to Mercury have facilitated a new view of the planet's structure, chemical makeup, and diverse surface, and have confirmed Mercury's status as a geochemical end member among the terrestrial planets. In this work, the most recent results from MESSENGER's X-Ray Spectrometer, Gamma-Ray Spectrometer, and Neutron Spectrometer have been used to identify nine distinct geochemical regions on Mercury. Using a variation on the classical CIPW normative mineralogy calculation, elemental composition data is used to constrain the potential mineralogy of Mercury's surface; the calculated silicate mineralogy is dominated by plagioclase, pyroxene (both orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene), and olivine, with lesser amounts of quartz. The range in surface compositions indicate that the rocks on the surface of Mercury are diverse and vary from komatiitic to boninitic. The high abundance of alkalis on Mercury's surface results in several of the nine regions being classified as alkali rich komatiites and/or boninites. In addition, Mercury's surface terranes span a wide range of SiO2 values that encompass crustal compositions that are more silica-rich than geochemical terranes on the Moon, Mars, and Vesta, but the range is similar to that of Earth. Although the composition of Mercury's surface appears to be chemically evolved, the high SiO2 content is a primitive feature and a direct result of the planet's low oxygen fugacity. (C) 2016 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.