Samples of the carbonaceous asteroid Ryugu were brought to Earth by the Hayabusa2 spacecraft. We analyzed 17 Ryugu samples measuring 1 to 8 millimeters. Carbon dioxide–bearing water inclusions are present within a pyrrhotite crystal, indicating that Ryugu’s parent asteroid formed in the outer Solar System. The samples contain low abundances of materials that formed at high temperatures, such as chondrules and calcium- and aluminum-rich inclusions. The samples are rich in phyllosilicates and carbonates, which formed through aqueous alteration reactions at low temperature, high pH, and water/rock ratios of <1 (by mass). Less altered fragments contain olivine, pyroxene, amorphous silicates, calcite, and phosphide. Numerical simulations, based on the mineralogical and physical properties of the samples, indicate that Ryugu’s parent body formed ~2 million years after the beginning of Solar System formation.

A two-length scale spectroscopic approach unveils the composition and degradation state of CdS paints in The Scream by Munch.

Ptychographic X-ray imaging at the highest spatial resolution requires an optimal experimental environment, providing a high coherent flux, excellent mechanical stability and a low background in the measured data. This requires, for example, a stable performance of all optical components along the entire beam path, high temperature stability, a robust sample and optics tracking system, and a scatter-free environment. This contribution summarizes the efforts along these lines to transform the nanoprobe station on beamline P06 (PETRA III) into the ptychographic nano-analytical microscope (PtyNAMi).

We present the first results of a combined scanning tunneling microscopy (STM) and surface X-ray diffraction (SXRD) study of Ag monolayer deposited on Cu(111). The STM images of Ag monolayer show a periodic frame of triangles, 4 or 5 atomic row wide with 1 or 3 atoms protruding in the centre respectively. Away from the triangles, the corrugation of the atomic rows is about 0.05 A while the depth of the triangles is about 0.5 A. SXRD shows an "average" Ag surface unit cell (9.43 x 9.43) times the Cu(111) surface unit cell without rotation in good agreement with STM observations