Diversity in the Visible-NIR Absorption Band Characteristics of Lunar and Asteroidal Plagioclase

Studying the visible and near-infrared (VNIR) spectral properties of plagioclase has been challenging because of the difficulty in obtaining good plagioclase separates from pristine planetary materials such as meteorites and returned lunar samples. After an early study indicated that the 1.25 m band position of plagioclase spectrum might be correlated with the molar percentage of anorthite (An#) [1], there have been few studies which dealt with the band center behavior. In this study, the VNIR absorption band parameters of plagioclase samples have been derived using the modified Gaussian model (MGM) [2] following a pioneering study by [3].