astrogeology Archives

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx curation engineer, Neftali Hernandez, attaches one of the tools developed to help remove two final fasteners that prohibited complete disassembly of the TAGSAM (Touch-and-Go Sample Acquisition Mechanism) head that holds the remainder of material collected from asteroid Bennu. Engineers on the team, based at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, developed new tools that freed the fasteners on Jan. 10. Image credit: NASA/Robert Markowitz Larger image

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Planetary Protection & Biosafety, Status Report

OSIRIS-REx Team Clears A Hurdle To Access Remaining Sample From Asteroid Bennu

by Keith CowingJanuary 12, 2024January 12, 2024

Curation team members at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston have successfully removed the two fasteners from the sampler head that had prevented the remainder of OSIRIS-REx’s asteroid Bennu sample […]

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Press Release

Meteorite Analysis Shows That Earth’s Building Blocks Contained Water

by Keith CowingJanuary 9, 2024January 9, 2024

When our Sun was a young star, 4.56 billion years ago, what is now our solar system was just a disk of rocky dust and gas. Over tens of millions […]

BSE images showing examples of the textural groups of altered primary sulfides in CM1 chondrites—(a) pentlandite+phyllosilicate (2P) grain, (b) pyrrhotite+pentlandite+magnetite (PPM) grain, (c) pentlandite+serpentine (PS) grain, and (d) pyrrhotite+pentlandite+magnetite+serpentine (PPMS) grain. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Meteorites & Asteroids, Press Release

The Fate of Primary Iron Sulfides in the CM1 Carbonaceous Chondrites: Effects of Advanced Aqueous Alteration on Primary Components

by Keith CowingJanuary 9, 2024January 9, 2024

We have carried out a SEM-EPMA-TEM study to determine the textures and compositions of relict primary iron sulfides and their alteration products in a suite of moderately to heavily-altered CM1 […]

FESEM image of a porous layer of aggregated a-C grains produced for this study. -- astro-ph.IM

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Interstellar, Status Report

Water Transport Through Mesoporous Amorphous-carbon Dust

by Keith CowingJanuary 9, 2024January 9, 2024

The diffusion of water molecules through mesoporous dust of amorphous carbon (a-C) is a key process in the evolution of prestellar, protostellar, and protoplanetary dust, as well as in that […]

An exoplanet size demographics histogram up to R/R(E) = 6 (R: radius, R(E): Earth’s radius; bottom) shown together with the implications of our experiments on the radius cliff (top). Schematic diagrams for the structures of sub-Neptunes with P (AMB) < 15 GPa and P (AMB) > 25 GPa are shown (AMB: atmosphere-magma boundary). In the histogram, three horizontal bars show the estimated radii of sub-Neptunes (2 wt% H2 atmosphere with an Earth-like interior composition) for different pressures (in GPa) at the atmosphere-magma boundary (see Text 5 for method). -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Exoplanets, -moons, -comets, Status Report

Stability Of Hydrides In Sub-Neptune Exoplanets With Thick Hydrogen-Rich Atmospheres

by Keith CowingJanuary 8, 2024January 8, 2024

Many sub-Neptune exoplanets have been believed to be composed of a thick hydrogen-dominated atmosphere and a high-temperature heavier-element-dominant core.

An artist’s rendition of Titan’s landscape features a hazy atmosphere, dark dunes, and mirror-smooth lakes and seas that resemble Earth’s. On these bodies of liquid hydrocarbons, new research suggests that the appearance of “magic islands” may be caused by floating organic solids. Credit: NASA/JPL

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Biochemistry & Organic Chemistry, Icy Worlds, Mapping, Geodesy, Cartography, Bathymetry, Missions & Hardware, Press Release, Saturn, Titan

Titan’s “Magic Islands” Are Likely Honeycombed Hydrocarbon Icebergs

by Keith CowingJanuary 5, 2024January 5, 2024

Titan’s “magic islands” are likely floating chunks of porous, frozen organic solids, a new study finds, pivoting from previous work suggesting they were gas bubbles. The study was published in […]

Astrogeology, Biogeochemical Cycles & Geobiology, Biosignatures & Paleobiology, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Mars, Status Report

Mixtures Of Sulfates In Melas Chasma On Mars

by Keith CowingDecember 26, 2023December 26, 2023

Many locations on Mars have sulfates, which are sedimentary rocks formed in water. Within Valles Marineris, the large canyon system that cuts across the planet, there are big and thick […]

An Earth-like target and a Mi = 3.604 × 1022 kg (Mi/Mt = 0.0063) impactor at the time of contact between the impactor and the target, with (a) the locations of tracer particles within the target and impactor, (b) geotherms under standard and warm mantle conditions (see Appendix A.3), as well as the solidus for our mantle and core materials, and (c) the pre-impact pressure and temperature profiles within the y = 0 km slice of both bodies. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrogeology, Atmospheres, Climate, Weather, Comets and Asteroids, Impact events, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report

The Distribution Of Impactor Core Material During Large Impacts On Earth-like Planets

by Keith CowingDecember 20, 2023December 20, 2023

Large impacts onto young rocky planets may transform their compositions, creating highly reducing conditions at their surfaces and reintroducing highly siderophile metals to their mantles. Key to these processes is […]

Optical reflectance spectra of 2004 GV9. Panel A: Here we compare our new GMOS reflectance spectra of 2004 GV9 both to each other and to coarse spectra derived from published single-epoch photometry (Rabinowitz et al. 2008; DeMeo et al. 2009; Fraser et al. 2015; Tegler et al. 2016). Hollow points in the GMOS spectra are either affected by incomplete background subtraction, telluric band residuals, proximity to the GMOS chip gaps, or a combination of these effects. All datasets are scaled to unit reflectance at 0.625 µm. We present all spectra calibrated with HD 124523 overlaid for direct comparison, and also offset for clarity. All offset spectra are offset vertically in increments of +0.2. Panel B: Here we show our 2004 GV9 spectra following division by a line fitted to them across their full wavelength coverage. Spectra from each epoch are offset vertically for clarity in increments of +0.1. Only spectra calibrated with HD 124523 are shown. Points affected by residuals of telluric absorption or imperfect background subtraction have been omitted. -- astro-ph.EP

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Astronomy & Telescopes, Comets and Asteroids, Imaging & Spectroscopy, Meteorites & Asteroids, Status Report

Hunting for Hydrated Minerals on Trans-Neptunian Objects

by Keith CowingDecember 20, 2023December 20, 2023

We present new optical reflectance spectra of three potentially silicate-rich Trans-Neptunian Objects (TNOs). These spectra were obtained with the aim of confirming past hints and detections of 0.7 micron absorption […]

Optical images of the Ryugu sample (left) and the CI chondrite (Orgueil ; right). ©Kana Amano et al.

Astrochemistry, Astrogeology, Comets and Asteroids, Meteorites & Asteroids, Missions & Hardware, Press Release

Ryugu Samples Illuminate Terrestrial Weathering Effects On Primitive Meteorites

by Keith CowingDecember 11, 2023December 11, 2023

A groundbreaking study conducted by a team of international scientists has unveiled unprecedented insights into the nature of the asteroid Ryugu and shed light on the composition of water- and […]