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Rapid cooling of planetesimal cores has been inferred for several iron meteorite parent bodies on the basis of metallographic cooling rates, and linked to the loss of their insulating mantles during impacts. However, the timing of these disruptive events is poorly constrained. Here, we used the short-lived 107Pd–107Ag decay system to date rapid core cooling by determining Pd–Ag ages for iron meteorites. We show that closure times for the iron meteorites equate to cooling in the time frame ~7.8–11.7 Myr after calcium–aluminium-rich inclusion formation, and that they indicate that an energetic inner Solar System persisted at this time. This probably results from the dissipation of gas in the protoplanetary disk, after which the damping effect of gas drag ceases. An early giant planet instability between 5 and 14 Myr after calcium–aluminium-rich inclusion formation could have reinforced this effect. This correlates well with the timing of impacts recorded by the Pd–Ag system for iron meteorites., Nature Astronomy, 6 (7), ISSN:2397-3366

We report on the detection of primordial organic matter within the carbonaceous chondrite Maribo that is distinct from the majority of organics found in extraterrestrial samples. We have applied high-spatial resolution techniques to obtain C-N isotopic compositions, chemical, and structural information of this material. The organic matter is depleted in ^15N relative to the terrestrial value at around δ^15N ~ -200‰, close to compositions in the local interstellar medium. Morphological investigations by electron microscopy revealed that the material consists of µm- to sub-µm-sized diffuse particles dispersed within the meteorite matrix. Electron energy loss and synchrotron X-ray absorption near-edge structure spectroscopies show that the carbon functional chemistry is dominated by aromatic and C=O bonding environments similar to primordial organics from other carbonaceous chondrites. The nitrogen functional chemistry is characterized by C-N double and triple bonding environments distinct from what is usually found in ^15N-enriched organics from aqueously altered carbonaceous chondrites. Our investigations demonstrate that Maribo represents one of the least altered CM chondrite breccias found to date and contains primordial organic matter, probably originating in the interstellar medium., Finanziert über die DEAL-Vereinbarung mit Wiley 2019-2022.

Micrometeorites, a possible major source of Earth’s water, are thought to form from explosive dispersal of hydrated chondritic materials during impact events on their parental asteroids. However, this provenance and formation mechanism have yet to be directly confirmed using asteroid returned samples. Here, we report evidence of mild shock metamorphism in the surface particles of asteroid Ryugu based on electron microscopy. All particles are dominated by phyllosilicates but lack dehydration textures, which are indicative of shock-heating temperatures below ~500 °C. Microfault-like textures associated with extensively shock-deformed framboidal magnetites and a high-pressure polymorph of Fe–Cr–sulfide have been identified. These findings indicate that the average peak pressure was ~2 GPa. The vast majority of ejecta formed during impact on Ryugu-like asteroids would be hydrated materials, larger than a millimetre, originating far from the impact point. These characteristics are inconsistent with current micrometeorite production models, and consequently, a new formation mechanism is required., 小惑星リュウグウ粒子の微小断層から読み解く天体衝突. 京都大学プレスリリース. 2023-04-24.

Pluto, Titan, and Triton make up a unique class of solar system bodies, with icy surfaces and chemically reducing atmospheres rich in organic photochemistry and haze formation. Hazes play important roles in these atmospheres, with physical and chemical processes highly dependent on particle sizes, but the haze size distribution in reducing atmospheres is currently poorly understood. Here we report observational evidence that Pluto’s haze particles are bimodally distributed, which successfully reproduces the full phase scattering observations from New Horizons. Combined with previous simulations of Titan’s haze, this result suggests that haze particles in reducing atmospheres undergo rapid shape change near pressure levels ~0.5 Pa and favors a photochemical rather than a dynamical origin for the formation of Titan’s detached haze. It also demonstrates that both oxidizing and reducing atmospheres can produce multi-modal hazes, and encourages reanalysis of observations of hazes on Titan and Triton., Pluto’s haze is revealed to have two types of particles: small spherical organic haze particles and micron-size fluffy aggregates. The persistence of these two populations has important implications for haze formation and properties on icy worlds.

The Dawn mission found that the dominant colour variation on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is a change of the visible spectral slope, where fresh impact craters are surrounded by blue (negative spectral-sloped) ejecta. The origin of this colour variation is still a mystery. Here we investigate a scenario in which an impact mixes the phyllosilicates present on the surface of Ceres with the water ice just below. In our experiment, Ceres analogue material is suspended in liquid water to create intimately mixed ice particles, which are sublimated under conditions approximating those on Ceres. The sublimation residue has a highly porous, foam-like structure made of phyllosilicates that scattered light in similar blue fashion as the Ceres surface. Our experiment provides a mechanism for the blue colour of fresh craters that can naturally emerge from the Ceres environment., The origin of blue ejecta around the fresh craters of dwarf planet Ceres is unknown. Here, the authors show that the blue color results from high porosity of the surface, induced by sublimation of ice-phyllosilicate mixture produced by impacts.

Pluto is covered by numerous deposits of methane, either diluted in nitrogen or as methane-rich ice. Within the dark equatorial region of Cthulhu, bright frost containing methane is observed coating crater rims and walls as well as mountain tops, providing spectacular resemblance to terrestrial snow-capped mountain chains. However, the origin of these deposits remained enigmatic. Here we report that they are composed of methane-rich ice. We use high-resolution numerical simulations of Pluto’s climate to show that the processes forming them are likely to be completely different to those forming high-altitude snowpack on Earth. The methane deposits may not result from adiabatic cooling in upwardly moving air like on our planet, but from a circulation-induced enrichment of gaseous methane a few kilometres above Pluto’s plains that favours methane condensation at mountain summits. This process could have shaped other methane reservoirs on Pluto and help explain the appearance of the bladed terrain of Tartarus Dorsa., Pluto is covered by numerous deposits of methane. Here, the authors show that the formation of methane frost on mountain tops and crater rims in Pluto’s equatorial regions completely differ from those forming snow-capped mountains on Earth.

Hydrothermal processes in impact environments on water-rich bodies such as Mars and Earth are relevant to the origins of life. Dawn mapping of dwarf planet (1) Ceres has identified similar deposits within Occator crater. Here we show using Dawn high-resolution stereo imaging and topography that Ceres’ unique composition has resulted in widespread mantling by solidified water- and salt-rich mud-like impact melts with scattered endogenic pits, troughs, and bright mounds indicative of outgassing of volatiles and periglacial-style activity during solidification. These features are distinct from and less extensive than on Mars, indicating that Occator melts may be less gas-rich or volatiles partially inhibited from reaching the surface. Bright salts at Vinalia Faculae form thin surficial precipitates sourced from hydrothermal brine effusion at many individual sites, coalescing in several larger centers, but their ages are statistically indistinguishable from floor materials, allowing for but not requiring migration of brines from deep crustal source(s)., Dawn mission’s second extended phase provided high resolution observations of Occator crater of the dwarf planet Ceres. Here, the authors show stereo imaging and topographic maps of this crater revealing the influence of crustal composition on impact related melt and hydrothermal processes, and compare features to those on Mars, Earth and the Moon.

Before acquiring highest-resolution data of Ceres, questions remained about the emplacement mechanism and source of Occator crater’s bright faculae. Here we report that brine effusion emplaced the faculae in a brine-limited, impact-induced hydrothermal system. Impact-derived fracturing enabled brines to reach the surface. The central faculae, Cerealia and Pasola Facula, postdate the central pit, and were primarily sourced from an impact-induced melt chamber, with some contribution from a deeper, pre-existing brine reservoir. Vinalia Faculae, in the crater floor, were sourced from the laterally extensive deep reservoir only. Vinalia Faculae are comparatively thinner and display greater ballistic emplacement than the central faculae because the deep reservoir brines took a longer path to the surface and contained more gas than the shallower impact-induced melt chamber brines. Impact-derived fractures providing conduits, and mixing of impact-induced melt with deeper endogenic brines, could also allow oceanic material to reach the surfaces of other large icy bodies., The second extended phase of the Dawn mission provided high resolution observations of Occator crater of the dwarf planet Ceres. Here, the authors show that the central faculae were sourced in an impact-induced melt chamber, with a contribution from the deep brine reservoir, while the Vinalia Faculae were sourced by the deep brine reservoir alone.

Rock breakdown due to diurnal thermal cycling has been hypothesized to drive boulder degradation and regolith production on airless bodies. Numerous studies have invoked its importance in driving landscape evolution, yet morphological features produced by thermal fracture processes have never been definitively observed on an airless body, or any surface where other weathering mechanisms may be ruled out. The Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS-REx) mission provides an opportunity to search for evidence of thermal breakdown and assess its significance on asteroid surfaces. Here we show boulder morphologies observed on Bennu that are consistent with terrestrial observations and models of fatigue-driven exfoliation and demonstrate how crack propagation via thermal stress can lead to their development. The rate and expression of this process will vary with asteroid composition and location, influencing how different bodies evolve and their apparent relative surface ages from space weathering and cratering records., In their study, the authors discuss the potential of thermal weathering on airless bodies. As a case study, they use boulder and fracture morphologies on asteroid Bennu.

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted reuse, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited., Trojan asteroids are small bodies orbiting around the L4 or L5 Lagrangian points of a Sun-planet system. Due to their peculiar orbits, they provide key constraints to the Solar System evolution models. Despite numerous dedicated observational efforts in the last decade, asteroid 2010 TK7 has been the only known Earth Trojan thus far. Here we confirm that the recently discovered 2020 XL5 is the second transient Earth Trojan known. To study its orbit, we used archival data from 2012 to 2019 and observed the object in 2021 from three ground-based observatories. Our study of its orbital stability shows that 2020 XL5 will remain in L4 for at least 4 000 years. With a photometric analysis we estimate its absolute magnitude to be Hr=18.58+0.16−0.15, and color indices suggestive of a C-complex taxonomy. Assuming an albedo of 0.06 ± 0.03, we obtain a diameter of 1.18 ± 0.08 km, larger than the first known Earth Trojan asteroid. © The Author(s) 2022., The work of TS-R was carried out through grant APOSTD/2019/046 by Generalitat Valenciana (Spain). This work was (partially) funded by the Spanish MICIN/AEI/10.13039/501100011033 and by “ERDF A way of making Europe” by the “European Union” through grant RTI2018-095076-B-C21, and the Institute of Cosmos Sciences University of Barcelona (ICCUB, Unidad de Excelencia ‘María de Maeztu’) through grant CEX2019-000918-M. P-YL acknowledges NEO-MAPP project under H2020-SPACE-2019 GA 870377. PGB, and ACB acknowledge funding from the Spanish MICINN project RTI2018-099464-B-I00. AA-C acknowledges support from the State Agency for Research of the Spanish MCIU through the “Center of Excellence Severo Ochoa” award to the Instituto de Astrofísica de Andalucía (SEV-2017-0709). DO was supported by National Science Centre, Poland, grants numbers 2017/26/D/ST9/00240 and 2017/25/B/ST9/00740. The Catalina Sky Survey is funded by NASA’s Planetary Defense Coordination Office, under grant 80NSSC18K1130. The Joan Oró Telescope (TJO) of the Montsec Observatory (OdM) is owned by the Catalan Government and operated by the Institute for Space Studies of Catalonia (IEEC). MD acknowledges funding from NASA NEOO grant 80NSSC21K0045 in support of the Second Lunation NEO Follow-up. These results made use of the Lowell Discovery Telescope (LDT) at Lowell Observatory. Lowell is a private, non-profit institution dedicated to astrophysical research and public appreciation of astronomy and operates the LDT in partnership with Boston University, the University of Maryland, the University of Toledo, Northern Arizona University, and Yale University. The Large Monolithic Imager (LMI) was built by Lowell Observatory using funds provided by the National Science Foundation (AST-1005313). Operation of the Pan-STARRS telescope is supported by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration under Grant No. 80NSSC18K0971 issued through the SSO Near-Earth Object Observations Program.

The near-Earth asteroid (162173) Ryugu, the target of Hayabusa2 space mission, was observed via both orbiter and the lander instruments. The infrared radiometer on the MASCOT lander (MARA) is the only instrument providing spectrally resolved mid-infrared (MIR) data, which is crucial for establishing a link between the asteroid material and meteorites found on Earth. Earlier studies revealed that the single boulder investigated by the lander belongs to the most common type found on Ryugu. Here we show the spectral variation of Ryugu’s emissivity using the complete set of in-situ MIR data and compare it to those of various carbonaceous chondritic meteorites, revealing similarities to the most aqueously altered ones, as well as to asteroid (101955) Bennu. The results show that Ryugu experienced strong aqueous alteration prior to any dehydration., Spectral characteristics can be used to link asteroid and meteorite materials. Here, the authors show in-situ mid-infrared data of a boulder on asteroid Ryugu, compared with laboratory spectra of various meteorites, indicate that Ryugu experienced strong aqueous alteration prior to dehydration.

Ryugu is a carbonaceous rubble-pile asteroid visited by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. Small rubble pile asteroids record the thermal evolution of their much larger parent bodies. However, recent space weathering and/or solar heating create ambiguities between the uppermost layer observable by remote-sensing and the pristine material from the parent body. Hayabusa2 remote-sensing observations find that on the asteroid (162173) Ryugu both north and south pole regions preserve the material least processed by space weathering, which is spectrally blue carbonaceous chondritic material with a 0–3% deep 0.7-µm band absorption, indicative of Fe-bearing phyllosilicates. Here we report that spectrally blue Ryugu’s parent body experienced intensive aqueous alteration and subsequent thermal metamorphism at 570–670 K (300–400 °C), suggesting that Ryugu’s parent body was heated by radioactive decay of short-lived radionuclides possibly because of its early formation 2–2.5 Ma. The samples being brought to Earth by Hayabusa2 will give us our first insights into this epoch in solar system history., Both poles of asteroid Ryugu, the target of space mission Hayabusa2, preserve the least processed material by space weathering. Here, the authors show detection of 700 nm absorption band in the polar spectra of Ryugu, that allows to constrain the hydrothermal history of its spectrally blue parent body.

Diogenites are a group of meteorites that are derived from the interior of the largest protoplanet Vesta. They provide a unique opportunity to understanding together the internal structure and dynamic evolution of this protoplanet. Northwest Africa (NWA) 8321 was suggested to be an unbrecciated noritic diogenite meteorite, which is confirmed by our oxygen and chromium isotopic data. Here, we find that olivine in this sample has been partly replaced by orthopyroxene, troilite, and minor metal. The replacement texture of olivine is unambiguous evidence of sulfur-involved metasomatism in the interior of Vesta. The presence of such replacement texture suggests that in NWA 8321, the olivine should be of xenolith origin while the noritic diogenite was derived from partial melting of pre-existing rocks and had crystallized in the interior of Vesta. The post-Rheasilvia craters in the north-polar region on Vesta could be the potential source for NWA 8321., The authors here analyse the petrology of the meteorite NWA 8321 (parent body Vesta). They find sulfidation processes of olivine suggesting metasomatism in the Vestan interior and a partial melting origin for the host noritic diogenite.

Extraterrestrial iron sulfide is a major mineral reservoir of the cosmochemically and astrobiologically important elements iron and sulfur. Sulfur depletion on asteroids is a long-standing, yet unresolved phenomenon that is of fundamental importance for asteroid evolution and sulfur delivery to the Earth. Understanding the chemistry of such environments requires insight into the behavior of iron sulfides exposed to space. Here we show that troilite (FeS) grains recovered from the regolith of asteroid 25143 Itokawa have lost sulfur during long-term space exposure. We report the wide-spread occurrence of metallic iron whiskers as a decomposition product formed through irradiation of the sulfide by energetic ions of the solar wind. Whisker growth by ion irradiation is a novel and unexpected aspect of space weathering. It implies that sulfur loss occurs rapidly and, furthermore, that ion irradiation plays an important role in the redistribution of sulfur between solids and gas of the interstellar medium., The authors here investigate troilite (FeS) grains recovered from the regolith of asteroid Itokawa. Finding wide-spread occurrence of metallic iron whiskers, the authors suggest them to be a decomposition product formed through irradiation of the sulfide by energetic ions of the solar wind.

While collisional families are common in the asteroid belt, only one is known in the Kuiper belt, linked to the dwarf planet Haumea. The characterization of Haumea's family helps to constrain its origin and, more generally, the collisional history of the Kuiper belt. However, the size distribution of the Haumea family is difficult to constrain from the known sample, which is affected by discovery biases. Here, we use the Outer Solar System Origins Survey (OSSOS) Ensemble to look for Haumea family members. In this OSSOS XVI study we report the detection of three candidates with small ejection velocities relative to the family formation centre. The largest discovery, 2013 UQ15, is conclusively a Haumea family member, with a low ejection velocity and neutral surface colours. Although the OSSOS Ensemble is sensitive to Haumea family members to a limiting absolute magnitude (Hr) of 9.5 (inferred diameter of ~90 km), the smallest candidate is significantly larger, Hr = 7.9. The Haumea family members larger than approximately 20 km in diameter must be characterized by a shallow H-distribution slope in order to produce only these three large detections. This shallow size distribution suggests that the family formed in a graze-and-merge scenario, not a catastrophic collision.