Nature Communications (Apr 2024)

Nonmagnetic framboid and associated iron nanoparticles with a space-weathered feature from asteroid Ryugu

  • Yuki Kimura,
  • Takeharu Kato,
  • Satoshi Anada,
  • Ryuji Yoshida,
  • Kazuo Yamamoto,
  • Toshiaki Tanigaki,
  • Tetsuya Akashi,
  • Hiroto Kasai,
  • Kosuke Kurosawa,
  • Tomoki Nakamura,
  • Takaaki Noguchi,
  • Masahiko Sato,
  • Toru Matsumoto,
  • Tomoyo Morita,
  • Mizuha Kikuiri,
  • Kana Amano,
  • Eiichi Kagawa,
  • Toru Yada,
  • Masahiro Nishimura,
  • Aiko Nakato,
  • Akiko Miyazaki,
  • Kasumi Yogata,
  • Masanao Abe,
  • Tatsuaki Okada,
  • Tomohiro Usui,
  • Makoto Yoshikawa,
  • Takanao Saiki,
  • Satoshi Tanaka,
  • Fuyuto Terui,
  • Satoru Nakazawa,
  • Hisayoshi Yurimoto,
  • Ryuji Okazaki,
  • Hikaru Yabuta,
  • Hiroshi Naraoka,
  • Kanako Sakamoto,
  • Sei-ichiro Watanabe,
  • Yuichi Tsuda,
  • Shogo Tachibana

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-024-47798-0
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 1
pp. 1 – 11

Abstract

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Abstract Extraterrestrial minerals on the surface of airless Solar System bodies undergo gradual alteration processes known as space weathering over long periods of time. The signatures of space weathering help us understand the phenomena occurring in the Solar System. However, meteorites rarely retain the signatures, making it impossible to study the space weathering processes precisely. Here, we examine samples retrieved from the asteroid Ryugu by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft and discover the presence of nonmagnetic framboids through electron holography measurements that can visualize magnetic flux. Magnetite particles, which normally provide a record of the nebular magnetic field, have lost their magnetic properties by reduction via a high-velocity (>5 km s–1) impact of a micrometeoroid with a diameter ranging from 2 to 20 μm after destruction of the parent body of Ryugu. Around these particles, thousands of metallic-iron nanoparticles with a vortex magnetic domain structure, which could have recorded a magnetic field in the impact event, are found. Through measuring the remanent magnetization of the iron nanoparticles, future studies are expected to elucidate the nature of the nebular/interplanetary magnetic fields after the termination of aqueous alteration in an asteroid.