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.