High-Energy Synchrotron Studies on Asteroid Samples Provided by Return Missions

Our project is embedded within the two sample return missions from near-Earth C-type asteroids ever undertaken so far in international space science, Hayabusa2 (JAXA) and OSIRIS-REx (NASA). The proposers of this Long Term Project are members of the Initial Analysis Team associated with JAXA’s Hayabusa2 mission and the goal of this proposal is to 1) establish the necessary experimental and data-analysis protocols for high-energy quantitative scanning 2D/3D X-ray fluorescence (XRF) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) micro-/nano-analysis of unique extra-terrestrial samples, and 2) to apply these methods to analyze unique sample materials originating from both carbonaceous asteroids which are remnants from the early Solar System, preserving primitive materials since their formation approximately 4.6 billion years ago.

本项目依托于国际空间科学领域迄今为止开展的两次近地C型小行星样本返回任务——隼鸟2号（JAXA）与奥西里斯-REx（NASA）。本长期项目的申请者为日本宇宙航空研究开发机构（JAXA）隼鸟2号任务初始分析团队成员，提案目标包括：1）建立针对独特地外样品的高能定量扫描二维/三维X射线荧光（XRF）与X射线衍射（XRD）微米/纳米级分析所需的实验与数据分析规程；2）应用上述方法分析源自两类碳质小行星的独特样品材料，这些小行星是早期太阳系的残余物，自约46亿年前形成以来便保存着原始物质。