The molecular chemistry of nanoscale organic matter in asteroid Ryugu

[2506.16798] The molecular chemistry of nanoscale organic matter in asteroid Ryugu Skip to main content Search Submit Donate Log in Search arXiv Press Enter to search · Advanced search Astrophysics > Earth and Planetary Astrophysics arXiv:2506.16798 (astro-ph) [Submitted on 20 Jun 2025 ( v1 ), last revised 14 Apr 2026 (this version, v2)] Title: The molecular chemistry of nanoscale organic matter in asteroid Ryugu Authors: Christian Vollmer , Demie Kepaptsoglou , Johannes Lier , Aleksander B. Mosberg , Quentin M. Ramasse View a PDF of the paper titled The molecular chemistry of nanoscale organic matter in asteroid Ryugu, by Christian Vollmer and 4 other authors View PDF Abstract: The analysis of biorelevant molecules in returned mission samples such as from the carbonaceous asteroid (162173) Ryugu is key to unravelling the role of extraterrestrial organics in the evolution of life. Coordinated analyses using chemically non-destructive techniques at the finest length-scales on pristine samples are particularly important. Here, we identify the chemical signature of uncommon globular and nitrogen-containing diffuse composite organic matter in asteroid Ryugu and map the distribution of biorelevant molecules therein with unprecedented detail. Using a novel electron-microscopy-based combination of vibrational and core-level spectroscopy, we disentangle the chemistry and nanoscale petrography of these organics. We show that some of these organics contain soluble and highly aliphatic components as well as NHx functional groups, that have formed in outer solar nebula environments before parent body incorporation or were synthesized by subtle fluid reactions on the final Ryugu asteroid. These novel coordinated analyses will open up new avenues of research on these types of precious and rare asteroidal dust samples. Comments: 37 pages, 11 Figures Subjects: Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) ; Chemical Physics (physics.chem-ph) Cite as: arXiv:2506.16798 [astro-ph.EP] (or arXiv:2506.16798v2 [astro-ph.EP] for this version) https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2506.16798 Focus to learn more arXiv-issued DOI via DataCite Submission history From: Christian Vollmer [ view email ] [v1] Fri, 20 Jun 2025 07:30:12 UTC (2,168 KB) [v2] Tue, 14 Apr 2026 06:25:53 UTC (2,506 KB) Full-text links: Access Paper: View a PDF of the paper titled The molecular chemistry of nanoscale organic matter in asteroid Ryugu, by Christian Vollmer and 4 other authors View PDF view license Current browse context: astro-ph.EP < prev | next > new | recent | 2025-06 Change to browse by: astro-ph physics physics.chem-ph References & Citations NASA ADS Google Scholar Semantic Scholar export BibTeX citation Loading... BibTeX formatted citation × loading... Data provided by: Bookmark Bibliographic Tools Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer Toggle Bibliographic Explorer ( What is the Explorer? ) Connected Papers Toggle Connected Papers ( What is Connected Papers? ) Litmaps Toggle Litmaps ( What is Litmaps? ) scite.ai Toggle scite Smart Citations ( What are Smart Citations? ) Code, Data, Media Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv Toggle alphaXiv ( What is alphaXiv? ) Links to Code Toggle CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers ( What is CatalyzeX? ) DagsHub Toggle DagsHub ( What is DagsHub? ) GotitPub Toggle Gotit.pub ( What is GotitPub? ) Huggingface Toggle Hugging Face ( What is Huggingface? ) ScienceCast Toggle ScienceCast ( What is ScienceCast? ) Demos Demos Replicate Toggle Replicate ( What is Replicate? ) Spaces Toggle Hugging Face Spaces ( What is Spaces? ) Spaces Toggle TXYZ.AI ( What is TXYZ.AI? ) Related Papers Recommenders and Search Tools Link to Influence Flower Influence Flower ( What are Influence Flowers? ) Core recommender toggle CORE Recommender ( What is CORE? ) IArxiv recommender toggle IArxiv Recommender ( What is IArxiv? ) Author Venue Institution Topic About arXivLabs arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs . Which authors of this paper are endorsers? | Disable MathJax ( What is MathJax? ) We gratefully acknowledge support from our major funders , member institutions , , and all contributors. About · Help · Contact · Subscribe · Copyright · Privacy · Accessibility · Operational Status (opens in new tab) Major funding support from

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