Exogenous copper sulfide in returned asteroid itokawa regolith grains are likely relicts of prior impacting body

Abstract

Samples from asteroid 25143 Itokawa returned by the Hayabusa mission have been identified as LL4-6 ordinary chondrite materials and have shown it to be a rubble pile that aggregated after break-up of a parent body. Here we investigate particle RB-CV-0038 from the Itokawa regolith using scanning and transmission electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy. We identify a cubanite-chalcopyrite-troilite-pyrrhotite assemblage, the phases and structure of which are indicative of low-temperature, aqueous alteration. Cubanite is stable only at temperatures below around 250 °C and has thus far only been identified in CI carbonaceous chondrites and the comet 81P/Wild2 sample suite. Chalcopyrite is also very rare in the meteorite record and is found mostly in R chondrites and some CK chondrites. Because the Itokawa parent body experienced significant thermal alteration with little evidence of low-temperature equilibration or aqueous alteration, we propose that the assemblage we identify is most likely exogenous and represents a component of an impacting body.