The January Meteoritics & Planetary Science (vol. 61, #1) is up today. Good on them for recognizing they were behind:
Fukai, R. Nishimura, M. Yumoto, K. et al. Nondestructive analysis of Bennu samples toward comparative studies with Ryugu samples P. 3 .70077
Conconi, R. Leroux, H. Marinova, M. et al. Occurrence and characterization of nanosulfide-rich regions on asteroid Ryugu: Insights from mackinawite and pyrrhotite P. 168 .70083
Tahara, R. Hatakeda, K. Nishimura, M. et al. JAXA curation for Bennu samples returned by the NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission P. 182 .70066
Standard disclaimer: Meteoritics & Planetary Science covers two sciences and then some. My three picks here are my picks, you might find benefit in the rest of the January issue.
The Ryugu samples, despite being 5.4 grams, already have a broader context: the instrument data observed by Hayabusa2 at Ryugu, the cratering experiment (SCI- Small Carry-on Impactor) performed by Haya2, and of course, the rest of the CI meteorites, which the Ryugu samples match fairly well. It appears that the CI meteorites are fragments of parent asteroid(s) quite like Ryugu. Now we have Bennu samples from OSIRIS-REx- how does that fit in? They look broadly like the CI meteorites and Ryugu, but not quite. Fukai et al. have started the inquiry, and report their initial results.
Conconi et al. are more straightforward: they look at the Ryugu sample, and report their findings on a narrow category. We are interested in asteroids because they contain water, they contain organics and metal, and they contain sulfur, which is necessary for life and quite a useful industrial feedstock. Less newsworthy than water and organic compounds is the presence of metal sulfides, which are rather common in CI meteorites. What about the Ryugu sample? Here are some insights.
Even more straightforward, we have engineering data. Tahara et al. publish their curation procedures and hardware for the precious asteroid samples. By international agreement, we gave JAXA a portion of the Bennu material, and they gave NASA a bit of Ryugu. Here is their description of how they intend to keep the sample pristine and informative.