An evaporite sequence from ancient brine recorded in Bennu samples
McCoy, TJ Russell, SS Zega, TJ Thomas-Keprta, KL Singerling, SA Brenker, FE Timms, NE Rickard, WDA Barnes, JJ Libourel, G
McCoy, TJ
Russell, SS
Zega, TJ
Thomas-Keprta, KL
Singerling, SA
Brenker, FE
Timms, NE
Rickard, WDA
Barnes, JJ
Libourel, G
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2025-01-29
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2024-07-31
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asteroids
comets
Kuiper belt
astrobiology
early solar system
mineralogy
petrology
comets
Kuiper belt
astrobiology
early solar system
mineralogy
petrology
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Abstract
Abstract: Evaporation or freezing of water-rich fluids with dilute concentrations of dissolved salts can produce brines, as observed in closed basins on Earth<jats:sup>1</jats:sup> and detected by remote sensing on icy bodies in the outer Solar System<jats:sup>2,3</jats:sup>. The mineralogical evolution of these brines is well understood in regard to terrestrial environments<jats:sup>4</jats:sup>, but poorly constrained for extraterrestrial systems owing to a lack of direct sampling. Here we report the occurrence of salt minerals in samples of the asteroid (101955) Bennu returned by the OSIRIS-REx mission<jats:sup>5</jats:sup>. These include sodium-bearing phosphates and sodium-rich carbonates, sulfates, chlorides and fluorides formed during evaporation of a late-stage brine that existed early in the history of Bennu’s parent body. Discovery of diverse salts would not be possible without mission sample return and careful curation and storage, because these decompose with prolonged exposure to Earth’s atmosphere. Similar brines probably still occur in the interior of icy bodies Ceres and Enceladus, as indicated by spectra or measurement of sodium carbonate on the surface or in plumes<jats:sup>2,3</jats:sup>.
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McCoy, T.J., Russell, S.S., Zega, T.J. et al. An evaporite sequence from ancient brine recorded in Bennu samples. Nature 637, 1072–1077 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41586-024-08495-6
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Copyright © This is a U.S. Government work and not under copyright protection in the US; foreign copyright protection may apply 2025. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/. The linked file is the published version of the article.
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0028-0836
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1476-4687
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openAccess