ABSTRACT Noble gases, due to their chemical inertness and isotopic sensitivity, are powerful tracers for reconstructing the degassing and volatile evolution of planetary bodies. Their signatures provide critical insights into early thermal processes and volatile loss on Earth, Mars, and differentiated asteroids Vesta, helping to unravel the interior evolution of these bodies. We present a comprehensive investigation of the noble gas abundances and elemental ratios of trapped noble gases (20Ne/132Xe)t, (36Ar/132Xe)t and (84Kr/132Xe)t in meteorites from the asteroid Vesta, specifically Eucrites and Diogenites, and compare them with those in undifferentiated chondrites and differentiated samples from Earth and Mars. This comparison aims to constrain the volatile inventory and evolutionary history of Vesta. Our results reveal a marked depletion of noble gases (Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe) in Eucrites and Diogenites relative to chondrites, consistent with volatile loss during Vesta’s early differentiation. Elemental ratio plots of 36Ar/132Xe and 84Kr/132Xe indicate that the trapped components in both Eucrites and Diogenites differ significantly from Solar Wind (SW), implying that the noble gases are indigenous and originated from chemically distinct source regions within Vesta. These differences likely reflect separate crustal and interior reservoirs, shaped by variable trapping efficiencies, degassing histories, and mineralogical controls. In this study, we compare noble gas signatures in meteorites from Vesta with those observed in Earth and Mars to explore the volatile evolution of differentiated planetary bodies. Our findings reveal that Eucrites and Diogenites preserve distinct records of Vesta’s degassing history, reflecting early thermal and differentiation processes. These meteorites not only shed light on Vesta’s interior evolution but also provide critical insights into noble gas retention in small planetary bodies. As analogues, they enhance our understanding of volatile behaviour across the Solar System and offer valuable clues about the early differentiation of unsampled bodies such as Mercury and Venus.
Jaiswal et al. (Mon,) studied this question.