Water-Rock Reactions in the Solar System

Samples of different Solar System bodies arrive on Earth through the natural flux of meteorites and sample return space missions. By using a variety of experimental techniques on such samples we can constrain the origin of mineral assemblages associated with the reaction of water on Mars and asteroids in order to better understand the evolution of the Solar System.

The Hayabusa2 mission successfully sampled asteroid Ryugu in mid 2019 and returned samples to Earth a year later. Leicester is part of the Hayabusa2 mineralogy team and we are making some of the first analyses of the samples. Using a variety of electron microscopy techniques and recently commissioned beamlines at the Diamond synchrotron we have a unique opportunity to determine asteroidal processes. We will also analyse close analogues to the Ryugu material from carbonaceous chondrites including the recently discovered Winchcombe meteorite find.

The same analytical techniques can be applied to recently discovered martian meteorites. We have made some of the most detailed analyses of the nakhlite meteorites and this studentship will study a recently discovered new nakhlite. By determining the mineral assemblages resulting from water-rock reactions in the parent rocks we will be able to constrain the environment of sub surface hydrous processes in that part of the martian crust.