Journal
EARTH PLANETS AND SPACE
Volume 72, Issue 1, Pages -Publisher
SPRINGER
DOI: 10.1186/s40623-020-01217-y
Keywords
Abiogenic organic molecules; Aliphatic and aromatic hydrocarbons; Explosion products; Nominal and off-nominal assessment; Energetic reaction with quenching effect
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Funding
- Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS) [25108006]
- JSPS [19H00712, 16H04083, JP17H06458]
- Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research [16H04083, 19H00712] Funding Source: KAKEN
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We report a chemical assessment of the explosive chamber in the projector system used during the sampling operation of the Hayabusa2 project at the surface of the C-type asteroid Ryugu. Although the explosion process was designed as a closed system, volatile combustion gases and semivolatile organics were produced together with quenched carbonaceous product. The chemical compositions of the gases, organics, and inorganics were investigated in the screening analysis. A solid-phase microextraction technique and thermal desorption coupled with gas chromatography/mass spectrometry analysis revealed that aliphatic (< C-20 n-alkanes) and aromatic (< pyrene) hydrocarbons were produced in the closed chamber system. The aromatic ring compositions of the latter showed a semilogarithmic decrease: one ring > two rings > three rings > four rings, resulting in abiogenic molecular patterns. The most intense inorganic fingerprints were due to potassium (K+) and chloride (Cl-) ions derived from the initial KTB explosive and RK ignition charge. We discuss quality control and quality assurance issues applicable to future sample processes during the Hayabusa2 project.
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