Space weathering effects in Bennu asteroid samples.

ABSTRACT: The OSIRIS-REx mission deployed contact pad samplers to collect regolith from the uppermost surface of the asteroid Bennu that was exposed to the space environment. Space weathering processes, dominated by micrometeoroid impacts and solar irradiation, modify the mineralogy and chemistry of exposed surfaces to produce solar wind-amorphized layers on clays, metallic whiskers associated with high temperature melts and Fe nitride created by the reaction of indigenous N-bearing gases with space-weathered surfaces. Here, we use cosmogenic noble gases and radionuclides to suggest that the upper metre of Bennu's regolith has been exposed to cosmic rays for 2-7 million years, consistent with remote sensing observations indicating that the asteroid's surface is dynamic and regularly modified by mass

SUBMITTER: Keller LP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12422962 | biostudies-literature | 2025

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature