Sunao Hasegawa

The presence of water on the Moon and on asteroids that are thought to be poor in water, either because they formed inside the snow line or because they lost much of their water during differentiation, has been suggested by multiple studies; however, its form and origin remain unclear. In this study, we conducted hypervelocity impact experiments between serpentinite projectiles and steel targets. Serpentinite contains hydroxyl and simulates hydrated impactors such as primitive asteroids. The effects of impact velocity and angle on the survival and form of water delivered to the target surface were investigated using near-infrared reflectance spectroscopy and microscopic Raman spectroscopy. Reflectance spectra of projectile materials adhered to the crater surfaces suggested that, in all head-on impact experiments with velocities of 3─7 km s⁻¹, hydroxyl pre-existing in the projectile was almost completely lost. The spectra also showed olivine absorption features at shock pressures exceeding ∼80 GPa, and the olivine Raman peaks became narrower at higher impact velocities. Based on the comparisons with results from impact experiments with anhydrous projectiles, it is suggested that molecular water can be trapped in the melt at shock pressures below ∼100 GPa. In contrast, in the oblique impact experiments conducted in this study, decomposition of projectile material was suppressed, and hydroxyl was detected in crater samples. The current results, along with comparisons to impact velocities of asteroids in the main belt and on the Moon, suggest that molecular water derived from hydrated impactors can be detectable through spectroscopic observations....

Large main-belt asteroids with visible geometric albedos below 0.1 are predominantly classified within the C- and X-complex spectroscopic classes. C-type and dark X-type asteroids typically exhibit flat to slightly negative and positive spectral slopes, respectively. They are further distinguished by the presence (for C-types) or absence (for dark X-types) of a shallow absorption feature near 1.0-1.3 μm. We serendipitously discovered that the asteroids 1093 Freda and 1390 Abastumani display spectral characteristics intermediate between these two classes, combining a positive visible-to-near-infrared spectral slope with a shallow absorption band. A search in the literature reveals additional asteroids with similar properties. The existence of such objects, spanning a continuum of spectral shapes between C- and dark X-types, may point to a common genetic origin. Their spectral behavior could be explained by the presence of cronstedtite, an Fe-rich serpentine, on their surfaces....