Discovery of new Al-Cu-Fe minerals in the Khatyrka CV3 meteorite

Introduction: During a nanomineralogy investigation of the Khatyrka CV3 carbonaceous chondrite, we have identified two new alloy minerals (AlCu with a Pm-3m CsCl structure and Al_3Fe with a C2/m structure) and associated icosahedrite (quasicrystal Al_(63)Cu_(26)Fe_(11) with a five-fold symmetry) at micron scales in section 126A of USNM 7908. The section belongs to the larger Grain 126, which is one of the fragments recovered from an expedition to the Koryak Mountains in far eastern Russia in 2011 [1] as a result of a search for samples that would provide information on the origin of the quasicrystal mineral icosahedrite [2,3,4]. The recovered fragments have meteoritic (CV3-like) oxygen isotopic compositions and are identified collectively as coming from the Khatyrka meteorite [5], which formed 4.5 billion years ago during the earliest stages of the solar system. Khatyrka is unique, so far being the only meteorite to host metallic Al component