article_snippet: Airless bodies are known to be darkened by micrometeorite impacts and bombardment of solar wind, processes that create a thin coating of dark iron nanoparticles on the surface.
article_snippet: The next part of the work was to find out how much darkening could be expected from all that impacting carbon.
article_snippet: The process reduced the amount of light reflected by the target material to less than 5 percent -- about the same as the darkest parts of Mercury.
article_snippet: We show that carbon acts like a stealth darkening agent,' Schultz said. '
article_snippet: From the standpoint of spectral analysis, it's like an invisible paint.'
article_snippet: We think this is a scenario that needs to be considered,' Schultz said. '