Meteoritics articles from across Nature Portfolio

The degree of diversity of molecular species within amino-acid and fatty-acid assemblages distinguishes biological from abiotic samples, suggesting that molecular distribution patterns could serve as a biosignature for detecting life beyond Earth.

Stromatolites within the Hapcheon impact crater suggest that asteroid impacts created hydrothermal oases fostering early life and habitability, according to geochemical, isotopic, and microbial analyses from the Hapcheon crater lake in Korea.

In situ S isotope analyses of Martian shergottites reveal extreme Δ³³S heterogeneity at the mineral scale, indicating that mass-independent S signatures were incorporated into the mantle early via atmosphere–mantle exchange during magma ocean evolution

Thermal inertia is used to infer physical properties of asteroid surfaces. Here, authors propose that the low thermal inertia of asteroids Bennu and Ryugu is driven by cracks in rocks resulting from geological processes within the parent body – or more recently through micrometeorite impacts

Remote sensing, sample analysis, and gardening simulations uncover little variation in sub-meter meteoroid fluxes at the lunar nearside and farside and reveal that the exposure history of lunar soil is governed by the most recent impact event

A joint analysis of sugars and amino acids in the Orgueil meteorite, a proxy for asteroids Bennu and Ryugu, reveals multiple biologically relevant sugars, including ribose, supporting efficient sugar formation in space and a richer prebiotic delivery to early Earth.

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.

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.

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.

Presolar moissanite grains are stellar fossils that act as messengers from the cosmos. Nan Liu explores the ways moissanite enables cosmochemists to investigate the origin and evolution of our Solar System and beyond.

An examination of nearly 8,000 impact observations indicates that the objects most likely to reach the Earth’s surface have experienced substantial thermal stress during close solar encounters. Around half of the remaining objects are then removed by the atmosphere, resulting in a filtered subset of material in the meteoritic collection.