Chondrule-like objects and Ca-Al-rich inclusions in Ryugu may potentially be the oldest Solar System materialsOPEN ACCESS 

Daisuke Nakashima, Tomoki Nakamura, Mingming Zhang, Noriko T. Kita, Takashi Mikouchi, Hideto Yoshida, Yuma Enokido, 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, Satoru Nakazawa, Fuyuto Terui, Hisayoshi Yurimoto, Takaaki Noguchi, Hikaru Yabuta, Hiroshi Naraoka, Ryuji Okazaki, Kanako Sakamoto, Sei-ichiro Watanabe, Shogo Tachibana & Yuichi Tsuda

Nature Communications, Volume 14, Article number: 532

LINK (OPEN ACCESS)
PDF (OPEN ACCESS)

“Chondrule-like objects and Ca-Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) are discovered in the retuned samples from asteroid Ryugu. Here we report results of oxygen isotope, mineralogical, and compositional analysis of the chondrule-like objects and CAIs. Three chondrule-like objects dominated by Mg-rich olivine are 16O-rich and -poor with Δ17O (=δ17O – 0.52 × δ18O) values of ~ –23‰ and ~ –3‰, resembling what has been proposed as early generations of chondrules. The 16O-rich objects are likely to be melted amoeboid olivine aggregates that escaped from incorporation into 16O-poor chondrule precursor dust. Two CAIs composed of refractory minerals are 16O-rich with Δ17O of ~ –23‰ and possibly as old as the oldest CAIs. The discovered objects (<30 µm) are as small as those from comets, suggesting radial transport favoring smaller objects from the inner solar nebula to the formation location of the Ryugu original parent body, which is farther from the Sun and scarce in chondrules. The transported objects may have been mostly destroyed during aqueous alteration in the Ryugu parent body.”