^1,2David R. Thompson et al. (>10)*¹Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California.
²Imaging Spectroscopy, Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology.
*Find the extensive, full author and affiliation list on the publishers website

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Reference
Thompson DR et al. (2015) Automating X-ray Fluorescence Analysis for Rapid Astrobiology Surveys. Astrobiology 15, 961-976
Link to Article [doi:10.1089/ast.2015.1349]

¹Burbine, T.H.
¹Department of Astronomy, Mount Holyoke College, South Hadley, MA 01075, USA

Considerable progress has been made in the last few years in determining asteroid chemistries and mineralogies. Dedicated spacecraft missions have allowed mineralogical predictions based on ground-based data to be confirmed or refuted. These missions include NEAR-Shoemaker to (253) Mathilde and (433) Eros, Hayabusa to (25143) Itokawa, and Dawn to (4) Vesta and (1) Ceres, the upcoming Hayabusa2 to (162173) Ryugu, and the upcoming OSIRIS-Rex to (101955) Bennu. All of these missions have or will make significant advances that could not have been made through just Earth-based observations. The recovery of Almahata Sitta from 2008 TC3 was a rare opportunity to recover meteorite samples from a spectrally observed body from a naturally occurring event. This review will discuss the importance of spacecraft missions to asteroids.

Reference
Burbine TH (2015) Advances in determining asteroid chemistries and mineralogies. Chemie der Erde (in Press)
Link to Article [doi:10.1016/j.chemer.2015.09.003]
Copyright Elsevier

¹Anthony J. Carrasquillo, ²Changqun Cao, ³Douglas H. Erwin, ¹Roger E. Summons
¹Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA
²State Key Laboratory of Palaeobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology & Palaeontology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Nanjing 210008, China
³Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, PO BOX 37012, Washington, Washington DC 20013-7012, USA

Fullerene (C60) have been reported in a number of geologic samples and, in some cases, attributed to carbonaceous materials delivered during bolide impact events. The extraction and detection of C60 poses significant analytical challenges, and some studies have been called into question due to the possibility of C60 forming in situ. Here, we extracted samples taken from the Permian-Triassic Boundary section in Meishan, South China and the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary exposed at Stevns Klint, Denmark, and analyzed the residues using a fast and reliable method for quantifying C60. Extraction of both whole rock and completely demineralized samples were completed under conditions that previously yielded C60 as well as using an optimized approach based on recent literature reports. These extracts were analyzed using mass spectrometry with the soft-ionization techniques, Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionization (APCI) and Electrospray Ionization (ESI), which have not been shown to form fullerenes in-situ. In no case were we able to detect C60, nor could we corroborate previous reports of its occurrence in these sediments, thereby challenging the utility of fullerene as a proxy for bolide impacts or mass extinction events.

Reference
Carrasquillo AJ,Cao C,Erwin DH,Summons RE (2015) Non-detection of C60 fullerene at two mass extinction horizons. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press)
Link to Article [doi:10.1016/j.gca.2015.12.017]
Copyright Elsevier

¹J.D. Gilmour, ¹G. Holland, ²A.B. Verchovsky, ³A.V. Fisenko, ¹S.A. Crowther, ¹G. Turner
¹School of Earth, Atmospheric and Environmental Sciences, University of Manchester, Manchester M13 9PL, United Kingdom
²Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, The Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, United Kingdom
³Vernadsky Inst Geochem & Analyt Chem RAS, 19 Kosygin St, Moscow 119991, Russia

We identify new xenon components in a nanodiamond-rich residue from the reduced CV3 chondrite Efremovka. We demonstrate for the first time that these, and the previously identified xenon components Xe-P3 and Xe-P6, are associated with elevated I/Xe ratios. The 129I/127I ratio associated with xenon loss from these presolar compositions during processing on planetesimals in the early solar system was (0.369 ± 0.019) x 10-4, a factor of 3-4 lower than the canonical value. This suggests either incorporation of iodine into carbonaceous grains before the last input of freshly synthesized 129I to the solar system’s precursor material, or loss of noble gases during processing of planetesimals around 30 Myr after solar system formation. The xenon/iodine ratios and model closure ages were revealed by laser step pyrolysis analysis of a neutron-irradiated, coarse-grained nanodiamond separate.

Three distinct low temperature compositions are identified by characteristic I/Xe ratios and 132Xe/136Xe ratios. There is some evidence of multiple compositions with distinct I/Xe ratios in the higher temperature releases associated with Xe-P6. The presence of iodine alongside Q-Xe and these components in nanodiamonds constrains the pathway by which extreme volatiles entered the solid phase and may facilitate the identification of their carriers.

There is no detectable iodine contribution to the presolar Xe-HL component, which is released at intermediate temperatures; this, suggests a distinct trapping process. Releases associated with the other components all include significant contributions of 128Xe produced from iodine by neutron capture during reactor irradiation.

We propose a revised model relating the origin of Xe-P3 (which exhibits an s-process deficit) through a “Q-process” to the Q component (which makes the dominant contribution to the heavy noble gas budget of primitive material). The Q-process incorporates noble gases and iodine into specific carbonaceous phases with mass dependent fractionation relative to the ambient composition. Q-Xe is dominated by the products of this “Q-process” occurring shortly before or during solar system formation. Carriers that trapped xenon by earlier Q-process events were altered, perhaps by supernova shocks, converting some Q carriers into P3 carriers. Unlike Q carriers, these carriers preserve the isotopic signature of the xenon they trapped through oxidation of samples in the laboratory. P3 carriers thus disproportionately sample xenon that was incorporated before galactic chemical evolution had produced the solar xenon signature by enriching ambient xenon with s-process material.

Reference
Gilmour JD, Holland G, Verchovsky AB, Fisenko AV, Crowther SA, Turner G (2016) Xenon and iodine reveal multiple distinct exotic xenon components in Efremovka “nanodiamonds”. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta (in Press)
Link to Article [doi:10.1016/j.gca.2015.12.028]
Copyright Elsevier

The most popular papers on Cosmochemistry Papers this year were:

1-Shearer CK, Elardo SM, Petro NE, Borg LE, McCubbin FM (2015) Origin of the lunar highlands Mg-suite: An integrated petrology, geochemistry, chronology, and remote sensing perspective. American Mineralogist, 100,294-325
Link to Article [doi: 10.2138/am-2015-4817]

2-Martín-Torres FJ et al. (2015) Transient liquid water and water activity at Gale crater on Mars. Nature Geoscience 8, 357-361
Link to Article [doi:10.1038/ngeo2412]

3-Santos AR, Agee CB, McCubbin FM, Shearer CK, Burger PV, Tartèse R, Anand M (2015) Petrology of igneous clasts in Northwest Africa 7034: Implications for the petrologic diversity of the martian crust. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 157, 56-85
Link to Article [doi:10.1016/j.gca.2015.02.023]

4-Touboul M, Puchtel IS, Walker RJ (2015) Tungsten isotopic evidence for disproportional late accretion to the Earth and Moon. Nature 520, 530-533
Link to Article [doi:10.1038/nature14355]

5-Changela HG, Cody GD, Alexander CMOD, Peeters Z, Nittler LR, Stroud RM (2015) Morphological Study of Insoluble Organic Matter from Carbonaceous Chondrites: Correlation with Petrologic Grade. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta 159, 285-297
Link to Article [doi:10.1016/j.gca.2015.02.007]

6-Renne PR, Sprain CJ, Richards MA, Self S, Vanderkluysen L, Pande K (2015) State shift in Deccan volcanism at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, possibly induced by impact. Science 6256:76-78
Link to Article [doi:10.1126/science.aac7549]

7-Németh P, Garvie LAJ, Aoki T, Dubrovinskaia N, Dubrovinsky L, Buseck PR (2014) Lonsdaleite is faulted and twinned cubic diamond and does not exist as a discrete material. Nature Communications 5, 5447
Link to Article [doi:10.1038/ncomms6447]

8-Svetsov VV, Shuvalov VV (2015) Water delivery to the Moon by asteroidal and cometary Impacts. Planetary and Space Science 117, 444-452
Link to Article [doi:10.1016/j.pss.2015.09.011]

8-Hallis LJ, Huss GR, Nagashima K, Taylor GJ, Halldórsson SA, Hilton DR, Mottl MJ, Meech KJ (2015) Evidence for primordial water in Earth’s deep mantle. Science 350, 795-797
Link to Article [DOI: 10.1126/science.aac4834]

9-Holst JC, Paton C, Wielandt D., Bizzarro M. (2015) Tungsten isotopes in bulk meteorites and their inclusions—Implications for processing of presolar components in the solar protoplanetary disk. Meteoritics&Planetary Science 50, 1643-1660
Link to Article [DOI: 10.1111/maps.12488]

10-Young ED, Manning CE, Schauble EA, Shahar A, Macris CA, Lazar C, Jordan M (2015) High-temperature equilibrium isotope fractionation of non-traditional stable isotopes: Experiments, theory, and applications. Chemical Geology 395, 176-195
Link to Article [DOI: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2014.12.013]

During the last days of this year, Cosmochemistry Papers will be on Christmas break (more or less). Normal service will commence on January, 4nd, after we have recovered.

Merry Christmas& Happy New Year to everyone and see you in 2016 !

¹Jun-ichi Matsuda, ¹Kazuhiko Morishita, ²Masayuki Nara,³Sachiko Amari
¹Department of Earth and Space Science, Graduate School of Science, Osaka University, Toyonaka, Osaka, Japan
²Laboratory of Chemistry, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Tokyo Medical and Dental University, Chiba, Japan
³McDonnell Center for the Space Sciences and the Physics Department, Washington University, St. Louis, Missouri, USA

We analyzed noble gases in an oxidized residue prepared from a HF-HCl residue of the Saratov L4 chondrite. The Ar, Kr, and Xe concentrations in the oxidized residue are two orders of magnitude lower than those in the HF-HCl residue, and they are close to concentrations in the bulk. The He and Ne concentrations are similar in the three samples. The Ne isotopic ratios are almost purely cosmogenic, indicating absence of presolar diamonds (the carrier of the HL component). Thus, Saratov contains phase Q without presolar diamond. A study of the Raman spectroscopic parameters for the HF-HCl residue and the oxidized residue shows large changes due to oxidation. The directions of these changes are the same as observed in Allende, except oxidation increased the ID/IG (intensity ratio of the D band to the G band) in Saratov but decreased in Allende. This difference may be attributed to the different crystalline stages of carbon in both meteorites. The shifts in the Raman parameters to a discrete and/or more expanded region suggest that (1) oxidation changes the crystalline condition of graphitic carbon, (2) phase Q is not a dissolved site, and (3) the release of Q-gas is simply related to the rearrangement of the carbon structure during oxidation.

Reference
Matsuda J-I, Morishita K, Nara M, Amari S (2015) Noble gases in oxidized residue prepared from the Saratov L4 chondrite and Raman spectroscopic study of residues to characterize phase Q. Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press)
Link to Article [DOI: 10.1111/maps.12587]
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

¹Wei Wang, ²Yongli Song, ²Xianjie Wang, ²Yanqiang Yang, ³Xiaoyang Liu
¹Academy of Fundamental and Interdisciplinary Sciences, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
²Department of Physics, Harbin Institute of Technology, Harbin, China.
³State Key Lab of Inorganic Synthesis and Preparative Chemistry, College of Chemistry, Jilin University, Changchun, China.

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Reference
Wang W, Song Y, Wang X, Yang Y, Liu X (2015) Alpha-Oxo Acids Assisted Transformation of FeS to Fe3S4 at Low Temperature: Implications for Abiotic, Biotic, and Prebiotic Mineralization. Astrobiology 15 1043-1051.
Link to Article [doi:10.1089/ast.2015.1373]

¹C. Tubiana, ^1,2C. Snodgrass, ³R. Michelsen, ³H. Haack, ¹H. Böhnhardt, ⁴A. Fitzsimmons, ⁵I. P. Williams
¹Max Planck Institute for Solar System Research, Justus-von-Liebig-Weg 3, 33077 Göttingen, Germany
e-mail: tubiana@mps.mpg.de
²Planetary and Space Sciences, Department of Physical Sciences, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK
³Centre for Star and Planet Formation, Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen, 1350 Copenhagen, Denmark
⁴Astrophysics Research Centre, Department of Physics and Astronomy, Queen’s University Belfast, Belfast BT7 1NN, UK
⁵School of Physics and Astronomy, Queen Mary, University of London, London E1 4NS, UK

We currently do not have a copyright agreement with this publisher and cannot display the abstract here

Reference
Tubiana C, Snodgrass C, Michelsen R, Haack H, Böhnhardt H, Fitzsimmons A, Williams IP (2015) 2P/Encke, the Taurid complex NEOs and the Maribo and Sutter’s Mill meteorites. Astronomy & Astrophysics 584, A97
Link to Article [http://dx.doi.org/10.1051/0004-6361/201425512]

¹Matthew Markley, ^1,2,3Gunther Kletetschka
¹Charles University in Prague, Faculty of Science, Albertov 6, 128 00 Prague, Czech Republic
²Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Institute of Geology, Prague, Czech Republic
³Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA, USA

Airless bodies are constantly exposed to space weathering. The Moon and other similar S-type asteroids physically change through comminution, melting, and agglutinate formation, while spectrally they are darkening, steepening (or reddening) the spectral slope towards longer wavelengths, and reducing silicate mineral absorption bands. In these S-type bodies the production of submicroscopic metallic iron, or nanophase iron (SMFe, npFe0) is a major contributor in these spectral changes. We made a qualitative estimate of both quantity and size distribution of produced metallic iron by space weathered analog, olivine irradiated by laser. Through SEM observation we confirmed that nanoparticles of metallic iron formed in the nm range. Spectroscopic and magnetic susceptibility (MS) through temperature analyses reveal an increasing trend of npFe0 formation, darkening, reddening, and shallowing of the 1 μm olivine absorption band. Olivine that produced the larger end of the size range of npFe0 produced similar effects, except for increased reddening. The magnetic data suggests that with laser irradiation there is both a linear increase of nanoparticles and a logarithmic increase in spectral change with SW time.

Reference
Markley M, Kletetschka G (2015) Nanophase Iron Production through Laser Irradiation and Magnetic Detection of Space Weathering Analogs. Icarus (in Press)
Link to Article [doi:10.1016/j.icarus.2015.12.022]
Copyright Elsevier