Nature Communications (Feb 2020)

Iron whiskers on asteroid Itokawa indicate sulfide destruction by space weathering

  • Toru Matsumoto,
  • Dennis Harries,
  • Falko Langenhorst,
  • Akira Miyake,
  • Takaaki Noguchi

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41467-020-14758-3
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 11, no. 1
pp. 1 – 8

Abstract

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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.