Skip to content
Home » Note, Paper: Wet, Hot Asteroidal September

Note, Paper: Wet, Hot Asteroidal September

  • by

Keeping the chimica in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta for September (vol.404):

Han, J. Park, C. Liu, M-C. et al.  Mineralogical and isotopic constraints on early, high-temperature events and reservoirs recorded in the interior of a Type B Ca-Al-rich inclusion from the reduc… p 25  .07.020
Singerling, S. A. Brenker, F. E. Tkalcec, B. et al.  Na, Ca carbonates in OSIRIS-REx samples: Evidence for low-temperature, Na-bearing brines on Bennu’s parent body  p 86  .06.028

Han et al. can get self-absorbed and self-appointed, but that’s meteoritics for you. Given a meteorite, and a single lithology from that meteorite (calcium-aluminum rich inclusions), the authors try to unwind the history of that meteorite from element and isotope levels. Oxygen isotope studies are well-grounded and not new, so this idea is not that speculative.

It’s Singerling et al. that’s new ground, literally. Since the delivery of Bennu samples by OSIRIS-REx, it is clear the original material on Bennu was water-based material. Carbonates (which form in water- liquid water) had already been detected from orbit, but the phosphates had not. Therefore, we on the ground had the general concept that Bennu had had some water, but not a flood, as we now know.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *