The Stardust spacecraft collected thousands of particles from comet 81P/Wild 2 and returned them to Earth for laboratory study. The preliminary examination of these samples shows that the nonvolatile portion of the comet is an unequilibrated assortment of materials that have both presolar and solar system origin. The comet contains an abundance of silicate grains that are much larger than predictions of interstellar grain models, and many of these are high-temperature minerals that appear to have formed in the inner regions of the solar nebula. Their presence in a comet proves that the formation of the solar system included mixing on the grandest scales.

The source and nature of carbon on Mars have been a subject of intense speculation. We report the results of confocal Raman imaging spectroscopy on 11 martian meteorites, spanning about 4.2 billion years of martian history. Ten of the meteorites contain abiotic macromolecular carbon (MMC) phases detected in association with small oxide grains included within high-temperature minerals. Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons were detected along with MMC phases in Dar al Gani 476. The association of organic carbon within magmatic minerals indicates that martian magmas favored precipitation of reduced carbon species during crystallization. The ubiquitous distribution of abiotic organic carbon in martian igneous rocks is important for understanding the martian carbon cycle and has implications for future missions to detect possible past martian life.

The redox state of Earth's convecting mantle, masked by the lithospheric plates and basaltic magmatism of plate tectonics, is a key unknown in the evolutionary history of our planet. Here we report that large, exceptional gem diamonds like the Cullinan, Constellation, and Koh-i-Noor carry direct evidence of crystallization from a redox-sensitive metallic liquid phase in the deep mantle. These sublithospheric diamonds contain inclusions of solidified iron-nickel-carbon-sulfur melt, accompanied by a thin fluid layer of methane ± hydrogen, and sometimes majoritic garnet or former calcium silicate perovskite. The metal-dominated mineral assemblages and reduced volatiles in large gem diamonds indicate formation under metal-saturated conditions. We verify previous predictions that Earth has highly reducing deep mantle regions capable of precipitating a metallic iron phase that contains dissolved carbon and hydrogen.

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NASA's Stardust spacecraft collected dust particles from Comet 81P/Wild 2, at an encounter speed of ~6.1 km/s, into low-density, silica aerogel capture cells and in impact craters in the Al-

Geological pathways for the recycling of Earth's surface materials into the mantle are both driven and obscured by plate tectonics. Gauging the extent of this recycling is difficult because subducted crustal components are often released at relatively shallow depths, below arc volcanoes. The conspicuous existence of blue boron-bearing diamonds (type IIb) reveals that boron, an element abundant in the continental and oceanic crust, is present in certain diamond-forming fluids at mantle depths. However, both the provenance of the boron and the geological setting of diamond crystallization were unknown. Here we show that boron-bearing diamonds carry previously unrecognized mineral assemblages whose high-pressure precursors were stable in metamorphosed oceanic lithospheric slabs at depths reaching the lower mantle. We propose that some of the boron in seawater-serpentinized oceanic lithosphere is subducted into the deep mantle, where it is released with hydrous fluids that enable diamond growth. Type IIb diamonds are thus among the deepest diamonds ever found and indicate a viable pathway for the deep-mantle recycling of crustal elements.

There is a lack of consensus regarding the roles of sulfide saturation versus volatile degassing on the partitioning of Cu and Ag during differentiation and eruption of convergent margin magmas. Because of their oxidized character, volatile-rich magmas from the Eastern Manus Back-arc Basin (EMBB) only reach sulfide saturation following magnetite-driven reduction of the melt: the so-called ''magnetite crisis.'' If sulfide saturation typically precedes volatile saturation, the magnetite crisis will limit the proportion of Cu and Ag that can partition from the melt into an exsolving volatile-rich phase, which may contribute to the sporadic occurrence of magmatic-hydrothermal ore deposits at convergent margins. However, it is unclear whether the magnetite crisis is a common or rare event during differentiation of volatile-rich magmas. We report major and trace element data for submarine volcanic glasses from the Tonga arc-proximal Valu Fa Ridge (VFR; SW Pacific). Cu-Se-Ag systematics of samples erupting at the southern VFR suggest magnetite fractionation-triggered sulfide saturation. The similarity in chalcophile element systematics of the southern VFR and EMBB samples is unlikely to be coincidental, and may indicate that the magnetite crisis is a common event during differentiation of hydrous melts. However, unlike many convergent margin magmas, it is unlikely that the evolving VFR and EMBB were saturated in a S-bearing volatile phase prior to magnetite fractionation. Hence, the metal-depleting magnetite crisis may be restricted to back-arc basin magmas that do not degas volatiles prior to magnetite fractionation and potentially convergent margin magmas fractionating at high pressures in the continental crust.