Deep Impact? On 15 February 2013, the Russian district of Chelyabinsk, with a population of more than 1 million, suffered the impact and atmospheric explosion of a 20-meter-wide asteroid—the largest impact on Earth by an asteroid since 1908. Popova et al. (p. 1069 , published online 7 November; see the Perspective by Chapman ) provide a comprehensive description of this event and of the body that caused it, including detailed information on the asteroid orbit and atmospheric trajectory, damage assessment, and meteorite recovery and characterization.

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The near-Earth asteroid 162173 Ryugu, the target of Hayabusa2 sample return mission, is thought to be a primitive carbonaceous object. We report reflectance spectra of Ryugu’s surface acquired with the Near Infrared Spectrometer (NIRS3) on Hayabusa2, to provide direct measurements of the surface composition and geological context for the returned samples. A weak, narrow absorption feature centered at 2.72 μm was detected across the entire observed surface, indicating that hydroxyl (OH)-bearing minerals are ubiquitous there. The intensity of the OH feature and low albedo are similar to thermally- and/or shock-metamorphosed carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. There are few variations in the OH-band position, consistent with Ryugu being a compositionally homogeneous rubble-pile object, generated from impact fragments of an undifferentiated aqueously altered parent body.

Abstract-Amoeboid olivine aggregates (AOAs) from the reduced CV chondrites Efremovka, Leoville and Vigarano are irregularly-shaped objects, up to 5 mm in size, composed of forsteritic olivine (F*Io) and a refractory, Ca,Al-rich component. The AOAs are depleted in moderately volatile elements (Mn, Cr, Na, K), Fe,Ni-metal and sulfides and contain no low-Ca pyroxene. The refractory component consists of fine-grained calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) composed of Al-diopside, anorthite (An1 oo), and magnesium-rich spinel (-1 wt% FeO) or fine-grained intergrowths of these minerals; secondary nepheline and sodalite are very minor. This indicates that AOAs from the reduced CV chondrites are more pristine than those from the oxidized CV chondrites Allende and Mokoia. Although AOAs from the reduced CV chondrites show evidence for high-temperature nebular annealing (e.g., forsterite grain boundaries form 120" triple junctions) and possibly a minor degree of melting of Aldiopside-anorthite materials, none of the AOAs studied appear to have experienced extensive (>50%) melting. We infer that AOAs are aggregates of high-temperature nebular condensates, which formed in CAI-forming regions, and that they were absent from chondrule-forming regions at the time of chondrule formation. The absence of low-Ca pyroxene and depletion in moderately volatile elements (Mn, Cr, Na, K) suggest that AOAs were either removed from CAI-forming regions prior to condensation of these elements and low-Ca pyroxene or gas-solid condensation of low-Ca-pyroxene was kinetically inhibited.