@article{b14cc425bfc74919b83a0127b6865979,
title = "Vortex magnetic structure in framboidal magnetite reveals existence of water droplets in an ancient asteroid",
abstract = "The majority of water has vanished from modern meteorites, yet there remain signatures of water on ancient asteroids. How and when water disappeared from the asteroids is important, because the final fluid-concentrated chemical species played critical roles in the early evolution of organics and in the final minerals in meteorites. Here we show evidence of vestigial traces of water based on a nanometre-scale palaeomagnetic method, applying electron holography to the framboids in the Tagish Lake meteorite. The framboids are colloidal crystals composed of three-dimensionally ordered magnetite nanoparticles and therefore are only able to form against the repulsive force induced by the surface charge of the magnetite as a water droplet parches in microgravity. We demonstrate that the magnetites have a flux closure vortex structure, a unique magnetic configuration in nature that permits the formation of colloidal crystals just before exhaustion of water from a local system within a hydrous asteroid.",
author = "Yuki Kimura and Takeshi Sato and Norihiro Nakamura and Jun Nozawa and Tomoki Nakamura and Katsuo Tsukamoto and Kazuo Yamamoto",
note = "Funding Information: We thank M. Zolensky, J.M. Garcia-Ruiz, J.A. Nuth III and Alan E. Rubin for their helpful comments and T. Miyazaki for analytical facilities of TEM in Tohoku University. The TEM observations were also performed as part of the Nanotechnology Support Project in Central Japan (Institute for Molecular Science), supported financially by the Nanotechnology Network of the MEXT, Japan. This work was supported in part by the Tohoku University GCOE programme for {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}Global Education and Research Center for Earth and Planetary Dynamics{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} and by {\textquoteleft}{\textquoteleft}Program Research{\textquoteright}{\textquoteright} in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Tohoku University, Japan. Funding Information: We thank M. Zolensky, J.M. Garcia-Ruiz, J.A. Nuth III and Alan E. Rubin for their helpful comments and T. Miyazaki for analytical facilities of TEM in Tohoku University. The TEM observations were also performed as part of the Nanotechnology Support Project in Central Japan (Institute for Molecular Science), supported financially by the Nanotechnology Network of the MEXT, Japan. This work was supported in part by the Tohoku University GCOE programme for {"}Global Education and Research Center for Earth and Planetary Dynamics{"} and by {"}Program Research{"} in the Center for Interdisciplinary Research, Tohoku University, Japan. Publisher Copyright: {\textcopyright} 2013 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.",
year = "2013",
month = oct,
day = "22",
doi = "10.1038/ncomms3649",
language = "English",
volume = "4",
journal = "Nature Communications",
issn = "2041-1723",
publisher = "Nature Publishing Group",
}