RESUMEN
The carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu has been explored by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft to elucidate the actual nature of hydrous asteroids. Laboratory analyses revealed that the samples from Ryugu are comparable to unheated CI carbonaceous chondrites; however, reflectance spectra of Ryugu samples and CIs do not coincide. Here, we demonstrate that Ryugu sample spectra are reproduced by heating Orgueil CI chondrite at 300°C under reducing conditions, which caused dehydration of terrestrial weathering products and reduction of iron in phyllosilicates. Terrestrial weathering of CIs accounts for the spectral differences between Ryugu sample and CIs, which is more severe than space weathering that likely explains those between asteroid Ryugu and the collected samples. Previous assignments of CI chondrite parent bodies, i.e., chemically most primitive objects in the solar system, are based on the spectra of CI chondrites. This study indicates that actual spectra of CI parent bodies are much darker and flatter at ultraviolet to visible wavelengths than the spectra of CI chondrites.
RESUMEN
The Dawn mission found that the dominant colour variation on the surface of dwarf planet Ceres is a change of the visible spectral slope, where fresh impact craters are surrounded by blue (negative spectral-sloped) ejecta. The origin of this colour variation is still a mystery. Here we investigate a scenario in which an impact mixes the phyllosilicates present on the surface of Ceres with the water ice just below. In our experiment, Ceres analogue material is suspended in liquid water to create intimately mixed ice particles, which are sublimated under conditions approximating those on Ceres. The sublimation residue has a highly porous, foam-like structure made of phyllosilicates that scattered light in similar blue fashion as the Ceres surface. Our experiment provides a mechanism for the blue colour of fresh craters that can naturally emerge from the Ceres environment.