Interaction between clay minerals and organics in asteroid Ryugu

The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft brought back to Earth grains of the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu. Such grains represent the pristine state of CI chondritic materials and have been preserved from exposure to Earth's atmosphere. Here, we show evidence of the presence of organics trapped within the interlayer space of smectite layers in Ryugu grains. No such organics are found in the Orgueil CI meteorite. We put forward that the organics within the interlayer space of smectite in Orgueil CI meteorite were lost during their oxidation on Earth. Also, we propose that the presence of organics within the interlayers space of smectite might be responsible for the possible NH infrared signature observed in Ryugu particles and potentially to a few large C-type asteroids including Ceres.

Automated summary

The Hayabusa 2 spacecraft returned grains of the Ryugu carbonaceous asteroid, which represent pristine CI chondritic materials preserved from Earth's atmosphere. Evidence of organics trapped within smectite layers in Ryugu grains is shown, whereas no such organics are found in the Orgueil CI meteorite. We propose that the organics within smectite interlayers in the Orgueil CI meteorite were lost during oxidation on Earth. Additionally, we suggest that the presence of organics within smectite interlayers might be related to the observed NH infrared signature in Ryugu particles and a few large C-type asteroids including Ceres.