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Volume 18 Issue 9, September 2025

Microscopic view of asteroid Bennu

Impacts at all scales have altered the surface of the asteroid Bennu. The image, taken by a scanning electron microscope, shows a micrometeoroid impact crater on a particle from Bennu returned by NASA’s OSIRIS-REx mission.

See Keller et al.

Image: Laura B. Seifert (NASA Johnson Space Center) and Lisette Melendez (Purdue University). Cover design: Alex Wing

Editorial

  • The mineralogy of samples returned from asteroid Bennu yield valuable insights into the physical and chemical processes — on both small and large scales — that shape small bodies in the Solar System.

    Editorial

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Comment

  • Samples returned from the asteroids Ryugu and Bennu shed insight on H2O ice and nitrogen-bearing organic matter in the Solar System and on Earth.

    • Takaaki Noguchi
    Comment
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News & Views

  • Reactive poorly crystalline iron minerals play a critical role in organic carbon accumulation. Insights from a coastal survey show they are abundant in coastal wetlands and may boost the ‘rusty carbon sink’ in these key carbon-storing environments.

    • Caroline L. Peacock
    News & Views
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All Minerals Considered

  • Barite is a relatively heavy mineral that is used in both the medical field and the oil and gas industry. Formed in marine environments, it also provides a valuable record of deep geological time.

    • Fang Huang
    • Tingting Chen
    All Minerals Considered
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Research Briefings

  • Analysis of millimetre-sized fragments from asteroid Bennu suggests that its parent asteroid coalesced in the outer Solar System from primordial nebular dust and ice and was poor in chondrules, objects common in primitive meteorites. Abundant phyllosilicates with minor sulfides, carbonates and magnetite formed during early alteration by water, with evaporite minerals forming later.

    Research Briefing
  • Lignin and the monophenols that constitute this polymer promote methane production in anoxic ecosystems, contributing an estimated 1.2–14.2% of methane emissions in peatland. The methoxy group can be directly converted to methane by methanogens. Consequently, increased lignin input to peatland from shrub encroachment would release more methane than previously thought.

    Research Briefing
  • The combination of plate motion and intraplate stress with a high-resolution, plate-boundary-resolving, global convection model has made it possible to holistically evaluate plate driving forces and reveal that Sumatra–Java slab pull is the predominant driver of the India–Eurasia collision. This suggests the growth of the Tibetan Plateau required external forces from adjacent subduction zones.

    Research Briefing
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Amendments & Corrections

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