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Scientists have actually identified a suddenly high abundance of presolar grains– dust from outstanding surges preceding our Solar System– in the samples of the near-Earth asteroid (101955) Bennu gathered by NASA’s OSIRIS-Rex spacecraft.
Characterization of a presolar spinel-hibonite grain from the asteroid Bennu. Image credit: Nguyen et aldoi: 10.1038/ s41550-025-02688-3.
“Presolar stardust grains are discovered at trace levels in meteorites, interplanetary dust particles, Antarctic meteorites, the samples from the comet 81 P/Wild2 returned by NASA’s Stardust objective, and the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu samples returned by JAXA’s Hayabusa-2 objective,” stated Dr. Ann Nguyen from NASA’s Johnson Space Center and associates.
“Their extremely anomalous isotopic structures arise from nucleosynthetic responses in progressed red huge stars, supernovae and novae.”
“The mineralogy and chemistry of presolar grains can be utilized to constrain condensation conditions and to penetrate the impacts of secondary change, as these grains are vulnerable to change or damage in area, in the Solar Nebula and within planetesimals.”
In the research study, the researchers examined presolar grains discovered in 2 various rock enters the Bennu samples.
The samples had six-times the quantity of the grains than any other studied astromaterial, recommending the asteroid’s moms and dad body formed in an area of the protoplanetary disk improved in the dust of passing away stars.
The research study likewise exposes that, while Bennu’s moms and dad asteroid experienced comprehensive change by fluids, there are still pockets of less-altered products within the samples that use insights into its origin.
“These pieces keep a greater abundance of raw material and presolar silicate grains, which are understood to be quickly ruined by liquid modification in asteroids,” Dr. Nguyen stated.
“Their conservation in the Bennu samples was a surprise and highlights that some product left change in the moms and dad body.”
“Our research study exposes the variety of presolar products that the moms and dad accreted as it was forming.”
A paper on the findings was released December 2 in the journal Nature Astronomy
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A.N. Nguyen et alPlentiful supernova dust and heterogeneous liquid modification exposed by stardust in 2 lithologies of asteroid Bennu. Nat Astronreleased online December 2, 2025; doi: 10.1038/ s41550-025-02688-3
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