Molecular diversity of identified SOMs in A0080
DESI-HRMS imaging revealed a variety of methanol-soluble organic matter on the surface of A0080. Molecular diversity and distribution pattern of organic compounds were reported from the solvent extracts of Ryugu aggregate sample A0106 (Naraoka et al., 2022; Orthous-Daunay et al., 2022; Schmitt-Kopplin et al., 2022). Alkylated homologues (-CH2) of N-heterocycles having a core structure with CH2 bonds such as piperidine (CnH2n+2N+), pyridine (CnH2n-4N+), and imidazole (CnH2n-1N2+), were identified in the methanol extract of the A0106 (Naraoka et al., 2022). Such N-heterocycles were also reported previously from the extracts of the Murchison meteorite (Naraoka et al., 2017). Identification of the alkylated CHN compounds from A0080 and Murchison by DESI-HRMS in this study is consistent with the detection of those compounds in the solvent extracts.
The distribution of molecular species, however, is different between A0080 and Murchison. A0080 was dominant in CHO compounds compared with Murchison, being rich in CHN and CHNO compounds (Fig. 2a and Table A1). Abundant alkyl homologues of CHN compounds such as the CnH2n-4N+ composition with a wider range of C number were identified from Murchison than in A0080 (Table A2). High-mass resolution mass spectra of negative ions from the methanol extract of the Ryugu A0106 sample obtained by Fourier transform ion cyclotron mass spectrometry (FTICR-MS) did not show an obvious CHO-composition enrichment relative to Murchison (Schmitt-Kopplin et al., 2022). Furthermore, the distribution pattern of alkylpyridine (CnH2n-4N+) identified from methanol extract of A0106 showed a wider C range relative to Murchison, in contrast to the present result in this study for A0080. Such difference in relative abundance is probably caused by different hydrothermal activity and/or different history of solar radiation and cosmic ray irradiation between Ryugu and the parent body of the Murchison meteorite (Orthous-Daunay et al., 2022). In contrast, a similar distribution was found in CnH2nN+ between methanol extracts of A0106 and Murchison (Orthous-Daunay et al., 2022). The difference of molecular diversity of A0080 compared to the Murchison fragments found in this study was not consistent with data of methanol extract of A0106 completely, and that result would be attributed to sample heterogeneity, in other words, heterogeneity of SOM distribution in the carbonaceous chondrite (Naraoka and Hashiguchi, 2018; Hashiguchi and Naraoka, 2019b; this study) and in Ryugu sample.
The effect of space weathering should be considered for the result from Ryugu A0080 grain. Sample in Chamber A of Hayabusa 2 spacecraft investigated in this study was obtained from the surface of the Ryugu asteroid and have been experienced space weathering due to solar wind sputtering or micrometeorite bombardment (Matsumoto et al., 2022). It is suggested that space weathering could impart a decrease of D/H in organic compounds by H implantation of Ryugu IOM (Remusat et al., 2022). Destruction of the chemical bonds of SOM could have occurred by UV irradiation, which may result in the loss of H2, methane, water, or aliphatic features (Orthous-Daunay et al., 2019). On the other hand, molecular analysis of organic matter of Murchison meteorite was performed from inside of the sample, which was not severely affect by space weathering. Such effect of space weathering is a possible mechanism for different molecular diversity of A0080 compared to the Murchison meteorite.
Spatial distribution of SOM in A0080 and implication for interaction with minerals or aqueous fluid.
Organic compounds identified from A0080 and Murchison meteorite by DESI-HRMS imaging in this study are methanol-soluble organic matter. Ryugu samples experienced by aqueous alteration on the asteroid Ryugu based on their mineralogy (Nakamura et al., 2022; Yokoyama et al., 2022; Yurimoto et al., 2022), and identified organic compounds should have been dissolved in aqueous fluid during hydrothermal aqueous alteration on the Ryugu and Murchison parent body. The FE-SEM-EDS observation revealed that large (>10 µm) sulfide, magnetite, carbonate grains were heterogeneously distributed in A0080, as seen in lithology 1 and 2. These minerals, particularly magnetite and carbonate, were produced during aqueous alteration and SOM distribution were related to the mineral distribution (more concentrated in lithology 1 or lithology 2, as discussed above). Therefore, different spatial distribution of the SOMs (CHN, CHO, CHONa, and CHNO: Fig.2) imply that the heterogenous spatial distribution of SOM was produced by activity on Ryugu parent body, for example interaction of minerals, and fluids which contains SOMs. Mineral precipitation and compound adsorption with surrounding minerals is one of the key processes for different compound distribution. There are three possible mechanisms are a) presence of multiple fluids with different chemical compositions (abundance of CHN, CHO, CHONa, and CHNO) during aqueous alteration, which can be ascribed to the different chemical compositions of interstellar ice grains accreted to the parent body, and distribution of each fluid to different range of the body, b) different timing of SOM precipitation, and c) different transportation efficiency of organic compounds by fluid flow and adsorption effect onto surrounding minerals. These will be considered individually below.
a) Variety of chemical compositions in the initial ice grains is not implausible, based on chemical compositions of cometary ice (Goesmann et al., 2015, Bockelée-Morvan and Biver, 2017), and ice grains with various chemical compositions should have presented based on the stability of molecules at heliocentric distance and time during evolution solar nebula (e.g., Dodson-Robinson et al., 2009). However, CHO, CHN, CHONa, and CHNO compounds were identified in a small region of a few hundred µm and more than half of the region for these SOMs were overlapped. Therefore, the presence of different aqueous fluids without mixing is unlikely to produce the different distribution of SOM in such a restricted such small region associated during with alteration processes.
b) Organic ions from ice grains, and cations (e.g., Mg2+, Fe2+ or 3+, and Ca2+) generated by dissolution of anhydrous or amorphous silicates during aqueous alteration (Brearley, 1995, Howard et al., 2009) on the asteroid Ryugu parent body. These organic ions in fluids would have been precipitated nearby in secondary minerals, such as carbonate and phosphate when the aqueous fluid was consumed by the alteration process (Le Guillou et al., 2014).
The influence of formation and growth of carbonate by the presence organic matter have been investigated in previous experimental studies, for example focused on carboxylic acids (Wada et al., 1999; Wada et al., 2001; Roberts et al., 2013) or alcohol (Dickinson and McGrath 2003). A study on the abiotic synthesis of dolomite at low temperature showed that the carboxyl-group in organic matter can catalyze precipitation through complexation between the carboxyl groups and Mg2+ followed by dehydration to make Mg2+ available for dolomite precipitation at ~25 ºC (Roberts et al., 2013). Aqueous alteration temperature of Ryugu was reported at ~40 ºC, determined by oxygen-isotope thermometry of coprecipitated dolomite and magnetite (Yokoyama et al., 2022; Yurimoto et al., 2022), and that is consistent with the precipitation of dolomite catalyzed by carboxylic organic matter on Ryugu asteroid during aqueous alteration. Alcohol such as methanol, ethanol, and 1-propanol, which may be detected as CHO compounds in this study, also lead preferential nucleation and growth of calcite (Dickinson and McGrath, 2003), which could have form to dolomite by incorporation of Mg2+ from fluid.
The CHO compounds in A0080 were more abundant in lithology 1 than other SOMs. On the other hand, CHN, CHNO, and CHONa compounds were more concentrated in lithology 2 rather than in lithology 1, and the distribution of these compounds mostly overlapped (Fig. 3d). Based on this observation, a possible scenario of the SOM precipitation could be derived by the consumption of fluid when the fluid flow from lithology 2 to lithology 1. First, CHO compounds in aqueous fluid catalyzed dolomite precipitation and some parts of the CHO compounds were precipitated in lithology 1 together with dolomite and Mg2+ ions to form dolomite grains (and Fe ions to form magnetite grains) was consumed from the fluid at that time. Sequentially, the fluid moved to lithology 2 and was gradually dried up, then the remaining CHO compounds in addition to CHN, CHONa, and CHNO compounds were also precipitated by fluid consumption. The CHO compounds showed high ion intensities in lithology 1, thus, abundant CHO compounds seemed to have been precipitated during dolomite precipitation.
c) The fluid activity could produce the heterogeneous distribution of soluble organic compounds (Naraoka and Hashiguchi, 2018; Hashiguchi and Naraoka, 2019b; Potiszil et al., 2020; Muneishi and Naraoka, 2021). Transportation efficiency of SOMs by fluid flow varies with its affinity to for the aqueous phase (Potiszil et al., 2020) and adsorption onto surrounding minerals such as phyllosilicates. This process is like chromatography between the aqueous phase (mobile phase) and minerals (solid phase) (asteroidal chromatography). Geochromatographic phenomena between clay minerals and/or solubility in H2O to produce fractionation of N-heterocycles have been observed in terrestrial environments (Yamamoto, 1992) and postulated in parent bodies of carbonaceous chondrites (e.g., Wing and Bada 1991).
The adsorption effect of organic compounds on minerals was previously observed, especially on clay minerals such as phyllosilicates by ion exchange (Bolger, 1983; Hashizume, 2015; Awad et al., 2019). Wada et al. (2001) reported the stronger affinity of carboxylic acid to CaCO3, which is resulting in inhibition of the CaCO3 growth. If adsorption effect was the main process that caused the different spatial distribution of SOMs in A0080, the relationship between more specific minerals and organic compounds expected to be observed. However different transportation rates between CHO, CHN, CHNO (CHONa) compounds by the interaction between fluid and surrounding minerals had also been possible (Muneishi and Naraoka, 2021), resulting in the different spatial distribution of these SOM. Further investigation for transportation mechanism of CHO, CHN, CHNO compounds on minerals such as dolomite grains will provide more firm interpretation.
CHO compounds seemed to have affected distribution of SOM on Ryugu by process of b) or c). The CHO compounds were detected from Ryugu as positive ions in this study, on the other hand, carboxylic acids are mainly ionized as negative ions by electrospray ionization (ESI). Therefore, these CHO compounds may be corresponding alcohol or perhaps ether, and heterogeneous SOM distribution in Ryugu would imply interaction of these organic species in fluid with mineral including mineral precipitation and/or adsorption of these organic species onto minerals.
As discussed above, space irradiation could have affected molecular diversity in extraterrestrial samples. Our result, showing the heterogeneous spatial distribution of SOM in A0080 Ryugu sample, would indicate that spatial distribution of the SOM formed by fluid activity during aqueous alteration has not disappeared by space weathering on asteroid Ryugu Furthermore, relationship between SOM and dolomite, which is a secondary mineral observed in A0080 indicate interaction of organic species and minerals via fluid activity rather than effect of space weathering. However, heterogeneous space weathering could not be excluded completely as one of the possible mechanisms to explain the SOM spatial distribution. Effect of the space weathering on organic species and its heterogeneity on extraterrestrial samples should be investigated to reveal more detailed mechanism to produce heterogeneous distribution of SOM on Ryugu sample.
Different spatial distribution of alkyl homologues of SOMs
Alkylated homologues were identified for CHN compounds in A0080 and were previously reported from Murchison (CM2), Murray (CM2), and Yamato 002540 (CR) (Naraoka et al., 2017; Naraoka and Hashiguchi 2018; Hashiguchi and Naraoka, 2019b; Isa et al., 2021). Different mass distribution patterns of SOM (CHN and CHNO) and different distributions of organic compounds extracted from Tagish Lake (C2ungrouped) fragments vary with different degrees of aqueous alteration (Herd et al., 2011; Isa et al., 2021).
The reaction of aldehydes and ammonia through aldol condensation reaction process was proposed for the formation and growth of alkylated N-heterocycles including alkyl-pyridines in carbonaceous chondrite (Yamashita and Naraoka, 2014; Naraoka et al., 2017). On the other hand, Isa et al. (2021) suggested that the mass distribution of SOM in Tagish Lake sample cannot be explained by such a condensation process. The complex feature of the SOM is supposed to have been obtained before accretion on the parent body followed by simplification on the asteroid due to secondary processes such as aqueous alteration.
The different spatial distribution of alkyl homologues of SOM in lithology 1 and lithology 2 in A0080 (Fig. 6) have probably been invoked by -CH2 polymerization or simplification of mass distributions during aqueous alteration. However, the different degrees of aqueous alteration in the two lithologies was indistinct, although mineralogy (abundance of large carbonate, magnetite, and Fe-sulfide grains) was different. Thus, identification the detailed alteration mechanism for -CH2 polymerization of CHN compounds in A0080 is unclear.
In Murchison, carbonate-rich fragment 1 was enriched in CnHmN compounds with a larger C number, which is a different feature from A0080. Furthermore, a clearly different distribution of CnHmN and CnHmN2 compounds implies either 1) different molecular growth of these compounds or 2) different interaction processes with minerals (e.g., carbonate grains). The specific relationships between minerals were not identified, therefore a detailed mechanism for the dislocation of CnHmN and CnHmN2 compounds to produce this result cannot be entirely explained. And yet, that distinct feature between Murchison and A0080 is remarkable and implies that the formation or evolution (growth) mechanism for the alkylated homologues of CHN compounds may be different between Murchison and A0080. Carbonate grain might have played as catalyst for CH2 growth of the CHN compounds, for example carbonate grains adsorbed CHN compounds (e.g., pyridine, imidazole, and pyrrole) onto its surface and play as reaction site for their sequential chemical evolution. Based on our result, such process may have been efficient on Ca carbonate (on parent body of Murchison meteorite). The growth of the CHN compounds by interaction with carbonates, or by fluid activity while carbonate grains have been precipitating from the aqueous fluid, but different characteristics of trend of molecular size of alkylated homologues of CHN vs. carbonate abundance is likely to be attributed from different adsorption effect and/or affinity of dolomite and Ca (-Na) carbonate for organic species, although adsorption effect of N-heterocyclic organic compounds are not clear (e.g., Thomas and Longo, 1993; Wada et al., 2001, Robert et al., 2013).
A previous study suggested that Murchison meteorite appeared to be formed where the UV photon flux was negligible or it has been accreted and shielded from photolysis in a parent body quickly (Orthous-Daunay et al., 2019). However, some chemical processes during fluid activity appeared to be more likely than the effect of space weathering for a distinct feature of alkylated CHN homologues between Murchison and A0080, because the positive relationship of carbonate abundance of carbonate was observed in both two samples.
Molecular distribution by ToF-SIMS
Organic-related ions detected by ToF-SIMS showed different abundance among lithology 1 (area C), and lithology 2 (area A) and around those boundaries (area B) (Fig.7). The ion intensities of these several ions from three regions was almost similar, and mostly rich in area C. DESI-HRMS imaging described abundant CHO compounds and poor CHN or CHNO compounds around area C than in area A and area B, which is inconsistent with the occurrence of CNO+, CHNO+, and CN– ions by ToF-SIMS analysis. Carboxylate ions (CO3–, CO4– and probably CO2–) appeared to be consistent with the result of DESI-HRMS imaging result, even if they could be derived from CHO compounds or dolomite grains.
Inconsistency of spatial distribution for organic species between ToF-SIMS data and DESI-HRMS imaging data for spatial distribution of organic species is probably result of different ionization mechanism between ToF-SIMS (spattering by ion beam) and DESI-HRMS imaging (desorption and ionization by charged solvent spray). Although soluble organic matter such as amino acids can be analyzed by ToF-SIMS (Noun et al., 2019), our result may indicate that ions detected from A0080 by ToF-SIMS would be mostly derived from methanol-insoluble organic compounds. Such organic compounds include IOM, which contains several functional groups including C=O and C=C (Yabuta et al., 2022). Further in-situ coordinated analysis using ToF-SIMS is expected to reveal the relationship between SOM, IOM, and minerals in asteroid Ryugu.