A major international collaboration has used the UK’s national synchrotron facility, the Diamond Light Source, to study grains collected from a near-Earth asteroid to improve our understanding of the evolution of our solar system. A University of Leicester research team used Diamond Light Source’s Nanoprobe beamline I14 to perform chemical analysis of a fragment of asteroid Ryugu using X-ray absorption near-field spectroscopy (XANES). The detailed composition of the asteroid was studied by mapping the chemical states of the elements in the asteroid material. Also, an electron microscope at the Diamond Electronic Physics Imaging Center (ePSIC) was used to examine the asteroid’s grains.

Julia Parker is I14’s Chief Scientist at Diamond. “The X-ray nanoprobe allows scientists to probe the chemical structure of their samples at micron and nanoscale length scales, complemented by the nano-atomic resolution of imaging on the ePSIC. To be able to contribute to the understanding of these unique samples, and to contribute to the understanding of these unique samples, and that methods in the beamline and, by extension, ePSIC, future sample return It’s very exciting to work with the team in Leicester to show how they can benefit their mission.”

The data collected at Diamond contributed to a broader study of space weathering signatures on the asteroid. The intact asteroid samples allowed the team to study how space weather could alter the physical and chemical composition of the surface of carbonaceous asteroids like Ryugu.

The researchers found that Ryugu’s surface was dehydrated, possibly due to space weather. The results of the recently published research, Nature Astronomy , led the authors to conclude that dry-appearing asteroids on the surface may be rich in water, potentially necessitating a revision of our understanding of multiple types of asteroids and asteroid formation history. asteroid belt

Ryugu is a near-Earth asteroid about 900 meters in diameter, first discovered in 1999 in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. It is named after the underwater palace of the Dragon God in Japanese mythology. In 2014, Japan’s national space agency JAXA launched Hayabusa2, an asteroid sample return mission to rendezvous with the asteroid Ryugu and collect material samples from and from its surface. The spacecraft returned to Earth in 2020, leaving a capsule containing valuable asteroid fragments. These tiny samples have been distributed to laboratories around the world for scientific research, including the University of Leicester School of Physics and Astronomy and Space Park, where one of the paper’s authors, John Bridges, is professor of planetary science.

John said: “This unique mission to collect samples of the Solar System’s most primitive carbon building blocks requires the most detailed microscopy in the world, so the JAXA and Fine Particle Mineralogy team asked us to analyze the samples with Diamond X-ray Nanoprobe beamline Micrometeorite collisions. and through the solar wind we helped reveal the nature of space weathering on this asteroid, creating anhydrous serpentine minerals and correspondingly reducing oxidized Fe3+ to more reduced Fe2+.

Gaining experience in studying samples returned from asteroids, as in the Hayabusa2 mission, is important, as more samples will soon be returned to Earth from other types of asteroids, the Moon, and over the next 10 years from Mars. The UK community will be able to do some critical analysis thanks to our facilities at Diamond and the electron microscopes at ePSIC.”

Ryugu building blocks are remnants of interactions between water, minerals, and organics in the early solar system before Earth was formed. Understanding the composition of asteroids could help explain how the early solar system and later Earth developed. They may even help explain how life on Earth arose, as asteroids are thought to provide most of the planet’s water, as well as organic compounds such as amino acids, the basic building blocks from which all human life is built.

Information gleaned from these small asteroid samples will help us better understand the origin of life, not just planets and stars. Whether asteroid fragments, ancient paintings, or unknown viral structures, scientists can examine their samples in the synchrotron using a machine 10,000 times more powerful than a conventional microscope.