September’s Meteoritics & Planetary Science (vol. 60 #9) is now up, plus a supplemental issue:
Lee, M. R. Salge, T. Maclaren, I. Magnesium phosphate in the Cold Bokkeveld (CM2) carbonaceous chondrite P. 2017 maps.70018
Vacher, L. G. Phan, V. T. H. Bonal, L. et al. Amides from the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu: Nanoscale spectral and isotopic characterizations P. 2033 maps.70019
White, L. F. Rider-Stokes, B. G. Anand, M. et al. Evidence for late impact-induced metasomatism on the brachinite parent body recorded by a phosphate assemblage in NWA 7828 P. 2099 maps.70023
Volume 60, Issue S1
-, 87th Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Society 2025: Abstracts maps.70033
Phosphates: one of the surprise discoveries within the Bennu sample. Phosphates are bioavailable stores of phosphorus, necessary for life, and they’re hydrated (xPO4·3H2O)- that other necessity of life. After the OSIRIS-REx announcement, phosphates (in lesser amounts) were reported in Ryugu samples, and the other carbonaceous chondrite materials- meteorites, mostly the CM and CI carbonaceous chondrite groups. Lee et al. now consider a key meteorite, Cold Bokkeveld, in a new light. White et al. hypothesize the formation of phosphates in another meteorite, NWA 7828. As phosphates form in water, this example likely crystallized after an impact had mobilized the hydration of its parent body.
Besides phosphorus and water, life needs nitrogen. Meteorites contain various levels of nitrogen, and some of them contain it in the form of biochemically-relevant molecules. Vacher et al., like others, detail the organics and nitrogen-carriers of meteorites and Ryugu samples, and in detail.
Plus, who doesn’t love a written record? The supplemental issue that M&PS just released has the abstracts of this Summer’s MetSoc meeting, in Perth. Granted, reading abstracts is not the same as attending their presentation, or full papers. Still, neither I nor most people were going to fly to Perth.