Center Director Rhonda Stroud is lead author on newly published findings from the Hayabusa2 Initial Analysis Macromolecular Organics and Fine-grained Mineralogy Teams which reveal the composition, morphology and functional chemistry of organic matter in Asteroid (162173) Ryugu samples through transmission electron microscopy (TEM).
These TEM studies show the Ryugu organic matter to be very similar to organic matter in carbonaceous chondrites from the CI and CM groups, with abundant nanoglobules, diffuse carbon intermixed with phyllosilicates, and nanodiamonds. Some secondary minerals, such as pyrrhotite and calcite, contain vesicles that can preserve asteroidal fluids.
The paper, Electron microscopy observations of the diversity of Ryugu organic matter and its relationship to minerals at the micro‐ to nano‐scale, appears on the website of the journal Meteoritics & Planetary Science and is currently available to read free of charge, via open access.
HAADF images and EDS elemental composite maps (C (red), S (green), O (blue)) of nanoglobules in microtome sections of Ryugu particles. (a) HAADF of a sulfur-rich nanoglobule with attached conformal phyllosilicates from A0108-28. The dashed line box indicates the ROI for a simultaneous EDS-EELS spectrum image. (b) EDS composite of the A0108-28 nanoglobule. (c) HAADF image of a heteroelement-poor nanoglobule, and a nonglobular carbon particle. (d) EDS composite map of (c). (e) HAADF image of clustered nanoglobules in A0108-39. The dashed line box indicates the ROI for a simultaneous EDS-EELS spectrum image. (f) Composite EDS map of the A0108-39 nanoglobule cluster. From Stroud et al, 2024.
Stroud, R.M., Barosch, J., Bonal, L., Burgess, K., Cody, G.D., De Gregorio, B.T., Daly, L., Dartois, E., Dobrica, E., Duprat, J., Engrand, C., Harries, D., Hashiguchi, M., Ishii, H., Kebukawa, Y., Kilcoyne, A.D., Langenhorst, F., Lee, M.R., Nittler, L.R., Quirico, E., Okumura, T., Remusat, L., Sandford, S., Yabuta, H., Abe, M., Abreu, N.M., Bagot, P.A.J., Beck, P., Bejach, L., Bland, P.A., Bridges, J.C., Cymes, B.A., Dazzi, A., de la Peña, F., Deniset-Besseau, A., Enju, S., Enokido, Y., Frank, D.R., Gray, J., Haruta, M., Hata, S., Hicks, L., Igami, Y., Jacob, D., Kamide, K., Komatsu, M., Laforet, S., Leroux, H., Le Guillou, C., Martins, Z., Marinova, M., Martinez, J., Mathurin, J., Matsumoto, M., Matsumoto, T., Matsuno, J., McFadzean, S., Michikami, T., Mitsukawa, I., Miyake, A., Miyahara, M., Miyazaki, A., Montagnac, G., Mostefaoui, S., Nakamura, T., Nakato, A., Naraoka, H., Nakauchi, Y., Nakazawa, S., Nishimura, M., Noguchi, T., Ohtaki, K., Ohigashi, T., Okada, T., Okumura, S., Okazaki, R., Phan, T.H.V., Rebois, R., Sakamoto, K., Saiki, T., Saito, H., Seto, Y., Shigenaka, M., Smith, W., Suga, H., Sun, M., Tachibana, S., Takahashi, Y., Takeichi, Y., Takeuchi, A., Takigawa, A., Tamenori, Y., Tanaka, S., Terui, F., Thompson, M.S., Tomioka, N., Tsuchiyama, A., Tsuda, Y., Uesugi, K., Uesugi, M., Usui, T., Verdier-Paoletti, M., Wakabayashi, D., Watanabe, S.-i., Yada, T., Yamashita, S., Yasutake, M., Yogata, K., Yoshikawa, M., Yurimoto, H., Zanetta, P.-M., Zega, T. and Zolensky, M.E. (2024), Electron microscopy observations of the diversity of Ryugu organic matter and its relationship to minerals at the micro- to nano-scale. Meteorit Planet Sci. https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.14128
