Sara S Russell

Natural History Museum, London · Department of Earth Sciences

The Winchcombe meteorite fell on February 28, 2021 and was the first recovered meteorite fall in the UK for 30 years, and the first UK carbonaceous chondrite. The meteorite was widely observed by meteor camera networks, doorbell cameras, and eyewitnesses, and 213.5 g (around 35% of the final recovered mass) was collected quickly—within 12 h—of its...

Fusion crusts form during the atmospheric entry heating of meteorites and preserve a record of the conditions that occurred during deceleration in the atmosphere. The fusion crust of the Winchcombe meteorite closely resembles that of other stony meteorites, and in particular CM2 chondrites, since it is dominated by olivine phenocrysts set in a glas...

The extraterrestrial materials returned from asteroid (162173) Ryugu consist predominantly of low-temperature aqueously formed secondary minerals and are chemically and mineralogically similar to CI (Ivuna-type) carbonaceous chondrites. Here, we show that high-temperature anhydrous primary minerals in Ryugu and CI chondrites exhibit a bimodal distr...

Initial analyses showed that asteroid Ryugu’s composition is close to CI (Ivuna-like) carbonaceous chondrites (CCs) – the chemically most primitive meteorites, characterized by near-solar abundances for most elements. However, some isotopic signatures (for example, Ti, Cr) overlap with other CC groups, so the details of the link between Ryugu and t...

The Winchcombe meteorite is a CM chondrite breccia composed of eight distinct lithological units plus a cataclastic matrix. The degree of aqueous alteration varies between intensely altered CM2.0 and moderately altered CM2.6. Although no lithology dominates, three heavily altered rock types (CM2.1–2.3) represent >70 area%. Tochilinite–cronstedtite...

Direct links between carbonaceous chondrites and their parent bodies in the solar system are rare. The Winchcombe meteorite is the most accurately recorded carbonaceous chondrite fall. Its pre-atmospheric orbit and cosmic-ray exposure age confirm that it arrived on Earth shortly after ejection from a primitive asteroid. Recovered only hours after f...

Little is known about the origin of the spectral diversity of asteroids and what it says about conditions in the protoplanetary disk. Here we show that samples returned from Cb-type asteroid Ryugu have Fe isotopic anomalies indistinguishable from Ivuna-type (CI) chondrites, which are distinct from all other carbonaceous chondrites. Iron isotopes, t...

Samples of the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu were brought to Earth by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We analyzed seventeen Ryugu samples measuring 1-8 mm. CO2-bearing water inclusions are present within a pyrrhotite crystal, indicating that Ryugu's parent asteroid formed in the outer Solar System. The samples contain low abundances of materials that forme...

Samples of the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu were brought to Earth by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We analyzed seventeen Ryugu samples measuring 1-8 mm. CO2-bearing water inclusions are present within a pyrrhotite crystal, indicating that Ryugu’s parent asteroid formed in the outer Solar System. The samples contain low abundances of materials that forme...

We have conducted a NanoSIMS-based search for presolar material in samples recently returned from C-type asteroid Ryugu as part of JAXA's Hayabusa2 mission. We report the detection of all major presolar grain types with O- and C-anomalous isotopic compositions typically identified in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites: 1 silicate, 1 oxide, 1 O-anoma...

We have conducted a NanoSIMS-based search for presolar material in samples recently returned from C-type asteroid Ryugu as part of JAXAʼs Hayabusa2 mission. We report the detection of all major presolar grain types with O-and C-anomalous isotopic compositions typically identified in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites: 1 silicate, 1 oxide, 1 O-anomal...

The MMX (Martian Moons eXploration) mission, currently under the critical design phase in JAXA, is overviewed with a focus on the scientific aspects. The main objectives of this mission are to reveal the origin and evolution of Martian moons, the transport of volatile materials to terrestrial planets across the early solar system, and the dynamics...

Carbonaceous meteorites are thought to be fragments of C-type (carbonaceous) asteroids. Samples of the C-type asteroid (162173) Ryugu were retrieved by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We measure the mineralogy, bulk chemical and isotopic compositions of Ryugu samples. They are mainly composed of materials similar to carbonaceous chondrite meteorites, par...

The cosmochemistry of meteorites provides unique clues on asteroids accretion, differentiation, collisional break-up and reassembly, processes of critical importance for understanding planet formation in the early solar system. Mesosiderites are a complex group of achondrites whose nearly 50:50 metal-silicate composition is interpreted in the liter...

Martian moons exploration, MMX, is the new sample return mission planned by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) targeting the two Martian moons with the scheduled launch in 2024 and return to the Earth in 2029. The major scientific objectives of this mission are to determine the origin of Phobos and Deimos, to elucidate the early Solar Sy...

EURO—CARES (European Curation of Astromaterials Returned from the Exploration of Space) was a European Commission funded project under the Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation program and ran between January 2015 and December 2017. The core project team was made up of academic and industry experts from 14 different organisations from the United Kin...

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch a spacecraft in 2024 for a sample return mission from Phobos (Martian Moons eXploration: MMX). Touchdown operations are planned to be performed twice at different landing sites on the Phobos surface to collect > 10 g of the Phobos surface materials with coring and pneumatic sampling systems on b...

This study simulates the hydrothermal conditions that existed on carbonaceous chondrite planetesimals in the early solar system. Our experiments are relevant to alteration conditions that existed on the CV parent body and the late stage oxidizing alteration of the CM chondrites. We conducted 11 alteration experiments using chips of the CO3 chondrit...

We review the mineralogy, petrology, and abundance of petrological type 1 extraterrestrial material. Such material has been completely altered by aqueous processing on its parent bodies. As well as the four meteorite groups that contain type 1 members (CI, CM, CR, and CY), we summarize data from the 2019 fall Flensburg and a recent reanalysis of th...

The last thirty years of cosmochemistry and planetary science have shown that one major Solar System reservoir is vastly undersampled in the available suite of extra-terrestrial materials, namely small bodies that formed in the outer Solar System (>10 AU). Because various dynamical evolutionary processes have modified their initial orbits (e.g., gi...

The CM carbonaceous chondrites are an important resource in our efforts to understand the role of volatiles in the formation of planetary systems. We report the bulk mineralogy, water abundance, and infrared (IR) reflectance spectra of the CM chondrites LaPaz Icefield (LAP) 04514, LAP 04796, LAP 04565, and LAP 02333. They contain abundant Fe‐ and M...

Volatile‐rich asteroids are crucial to understanding the transport of water and organics to the terrestrial planet forming region in the early Solar System. Observations of two such asteroids by Hayabusa2 and Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer (OSIRIS‐REx) suggest a relationship between these bodi...

Sample return missions are among the most exciting space missions, providing both scientifically unique information and an unparalleled mechanism for the inspiring the public. Returned samples allow us to make critical ground truth measurements that can calibrate remote sensing measurements from spacecraft. Some scientific studies can only be done...

Refractory calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs) and amoeboid olivine aggregates (AOAs) in chondritic meteorites are the earliest solids of our solar system, bearing the information of nebular condensation as well as accretion and asteroidal shock and metasomatism processes. While the compositions of refractory inclusions have been intensely stud...

Determining compositional trends among individual minerals is key to understanding the thermodynamic conditions under which they formed and altered, and is also essential to maximizing the scientific value of small extraterrestrial samples, including returned samples and meteorites. Here we report the chemical compositions of Fe-sulfides, focusing...

The CM carbonaceous chondrite meteorites provide a record of low temperature aqueous reactions in the early solar system. A number of CM chondrites also experienced short-lived, post-hydration thermal metamorphism at temperatures of 200C to over 750C. The exact conditions of thermal metamorphism and the relationship between the unheated and heated...

The CM chondrites are samples of primitive water-rich asteroids formed during the early solar system. They record significant interaction between liquid water and silicate rock, resulting in a mineralogy dominated by hydrated secondary phases. Their similarity to the near-Earth asteroids Bennu and Ryugu – targets of current sample return space miss...

The CM carbonaceous chondrite meteorites provide a record of low temperature (<150 °C) aqueous reactions in the early solar system. A number of CM chondrites also experienced short-lived, post-hydration thermal metamorphism at temperatures of ∼200 °C to >750 °C. The exact conditions of thermal metamorphism and the relationship between the unheated...

The practical limitations inherent to human and robotic planetary exploration necessitate the development of specific protocols and methods. This non-standard approach requires testing and validation phases in order to optimize instrumental setups and improve data interpretation; this can occur prior to, during, or even after a mission. Flight inst...

Recovery and transport of returned samples is a crucial importance issue, because it has the fundamental duty to avoid forward contamination (i.e., contamination of the sample from the terrestrial environment) and, in the case of samples returned from a planetary body possibly hosting any life form, backward contamination (i.e., contamination of no...

Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) will launch a spacecraft in 2024 for a sample return mission from Phobos (Martian Moons eXploration: MMX). Touchdown operations are planned to be performed twice at different landing sites on the Phobos surface to collect >10 g of the Phobos surface materials with coring and pneumatic sampling systems on bo...

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

We provide the first detailed analysis of the carbonaceous chondrite Dhofar (Dho) 1988. This meteorite find was recovered in 2011 from the Zufar desert region of Oman and initially classified as a C2 ungrouped chondrite. Dho 1988 is a monomict breccia composed of millimetre-sized clasts, between which large (∼50-250µm) intermixed sulphide-Ca-carbon...

Bulk oxygen isotope data has the potential to match extraterrestrial samples to parent body sources based on distinctive δ18O and Δ17O ratios. We analysed 10 giant (>500 μm) micrometeorites using combined micro-Computer Tomography (μCT) and O-isotope analysis to pair internal textures to inferred parent body groups. We identify three ordinary chond...

Very few in situ lunar sulfur studies exist, with the major focus being on bulk-rocks in which a relatively restricted sulfur isotope fractionation is observed, leading to suggestions that the source of sulfur in the lunar interior is homogeneous. Using a novel approach, we present for the first time two complementary datasets combining in situ sec...

Comets are typically considered to be pristine remnants of the early solar system. However, by definition they evolve significantly over their lifetimes through evaporation, sublimation, degassing and dust release. This occurs once they enter the inner solar system and are heated by the Sun. Some comets (e.g. 1P/Halley, 9P/Tempel and Hale-Bopp) as...

A ∼175 µm refractory inclusion, A-COR-01 from one of the least altered carbonaceous chondrites, ALHA 77307 (CO3.0), has been found to bear unique characteristics that indicate that it is one of the first solids to have formed at the very birth of the solar system while isotopic reservoirs were still evolving rapidly. Its core is composed mainly of...

2020. The American Astronomical Society. All rights reserved.. The migrations of solid objects throughout the solar system are thought to have played key roles in disk evolution and planet formation. However, our understanding of these migrations is limited by a lack of quantitative constraints on their timings and distances recovered from laborato...

The Martian Moons Exploration (MMX) mission has been planned to launch a Martian moons probe in 2024 as one of next planetary exploration missions in Japan. In this mission, the spacecraft reaches on quasi-satellite orbits around Phobos and makes remote-sensing observations. The spacecraft then carries out two times of landing and samples material...

Mars has two satellites, Phobos and Deimos, and the origin of these satellites are still controversial. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) is planning the Martian Moon eXploration (MMX) mission, which is a sample-return mission for Phobos or Deimos to reveal the origins of these two satellites. The scientific instruments onboard the MMX...

The small Martian moons Phobos and Deimos are likely a byproduct of the formation of Mars, a potentially habitable rocky planet comparable with the Earth. Owing to the lack of definitive evidence, their origin is still under debate between two leading hypotheses: the capture of volatile-rich primordial asteroid(s) and the in-situ formation from a d...

The petrologic and oxygen isotopic characteristics of calcium‐aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs) in CO chondrites were further constrained by studying CAIs from six primitive CO3.0‐3.1 chondrites, including two Antarctic meteorites (DOM 08006 and MIL 090010), three hot desert meteorites (NWA 10493, NWA 10498, and NWA 7892), and the Colony meteorite. T...

Understanding the spatial variability of initial ²⁶ Al/ ²⁷ Al in the solar system, i.e., ( ²⁶ Al/ ²⁷ Al) 0 , is of prime importance to meteorite chronology, planetary heat production, and protoplanetary disc mixing dynamics. The ( ²⁶ Al/ ²⁷ Al) 0 of calcium-aluminum–rich inclusions (CAIs) in primitive meteorites (~5 × 10 ⁻⁵ ) is frequently assumed...

The Moon is the only planetary body other than the Earth for which samples have been collected in situ by humans and robotic missions and returned to Earth. Scientific investigations of the first lunar samples returned by the Apollo 11 astronauts 50 years ago transformed the way we think most planetary bodies form and evolve. Identification of anor...

Jbilet Winselwan is one of the largest CM carbonaceous chondrites available for study. Its light, major, and trace elemental compositions are within the range of other CM chondrites. Chondrules are surrounded by dusty rims and set within a matrix of phyllosilicates, oxides, and sulfides. Calcium‐ and aluminum‐rich inclusions (CAIs) are present at ≤...

Charles Cockell and colleagues consider what it takes to establish and maintain an experiment that lasts for decades – or even for centuries.

The highly hydrated, petrologic type 1 CM and CI carbonaceous chondrites likely derived from primitive, water‐rich asteroids, two of which are the targets for JAXA's Hayabusa2 and NASA's OSIRIS‐REx missions. We have collected visible and near‐infrared (VNIR) and mid infrared (MIR) reflectance spectra from well‐characterized CM1/2, CM1, and CI1 chon...

The rare CI carbonaceous chondrites are the most aqueously altered and chemically primitive meteorites but due to their porous nature and high abundance of volatile elements are susceptible to terrestrial weathering. The Ivuna meteorite, type specimen for the CI chondrites, is the largest twentieth-century CI fall and probably the CI chondrite leas...

http://arxiv.org/abs/1909.13064 The rare CI carbonaceous chondrites are the most aqueously altered and chemically primitive meteorites but due to their porous nature and high abundance of volatile elements are susceptible to terrestrial weathering. The Ivuna meteorite, type specimen for the CI chondrites, is the largest twentieth-century CI fall an...

We report new mineralogical, petrographic and noble gas analyses of the carbonaceous chondrite meteorites Y-82162 (C1/2ung), Y-980115 (CI1), Y-86029 (CI1), Y-86720 (C2ung), Y-86789 (C2ung), and B-7904 (C2ung). Combining our results with literature data we show that these meteorites experienced varying degrees of aqueous alteration followed by short...

We present the first high-precision vanadium (V) isotope data for lunar basalts. Terrestrial magmatic rock measurements can display significant V isotopic fractionation (particularly during (Fe, Ti)oxide crystallisation), but the Earth displays heavy V (i.e. higher ⁵¹V/⁵⁰V) isotopic compositions compared to meteorites. This has been attributed to e...

Chondritic meteorites, and especially the most volatile-rich chondrites, the carbonaceous chondrites, preserve a record of the solar protoplanetary disk dust component and how it has been changed both in the disk environment itself and in its asteroidal parent body. Here we review some of the key features of carbonaceous chondrites and report some...

We report the discovery of a partially altered microchondrule within a fine-grained micrometeorite. This object is circular, <10μm in diameter, and has a cryptocrystalline texture, internal zonation, and a thin S-bearing rim. These features imply a period of postaccretion parent body aqueous alteration, in which the former glassy igneous texture wa...

EURO-CARES (European Curation of Astromaterials Returned from the Exploration of Space) was a three-year multinational project (2015-2017) funded by the European Commission's Horizon 2020 research programme. The objective of EURO-CARES was to create a roadmap for the implementation of a European Extra-terrestrial Sample Curation Facility (ESCF). Th...