COORDINATED ANALYSIS of TWO GRAPHITE GRAINS from the CO3.0 LAP 031117 METEORITE: FIRST IDENTIFICATION of A CO NOVA GRAPHITE and A PRESOLAR IRON SULFIDE SUBGRAIN

Presolar grains constitute the remnants of stars that existed before the formation of the solar system. In addition to providing direct information on the materials from which the solar system formed, these grains provide groundtruth information for models of stellar evolution and nucleosynthesis. Here we report the in situ identification of two unique presolar graphite grains from the primitive meteorite LaPaz Icefield 031117. Based on these two graphite grains, we estimate a bulk presolar graphite abundance of 5_-3⁺⁷ ppm in this meteorite. One of the grains (LAP-141) is characterized by an enrichment in ¹²C and depletions in ^33,34S, and contains a small iron sulfide subgrain, representing the first unambiguous identification of presolar iron sulfide. The other grain (LAP- 149) is extremely ¹³C-rich and ¹⁵N-poor, with one of the lowest ¹²C/¹³C ratios observed among presolar grains. Comparison of its isotopic compositions with new stellar nucleosynthesis and dust condensation models indicates an origin in the ejecta of a low-mass CO nova. Grain LAP-149 is the first putative nova grain that quantitatively best matches nova model predictions, providing the first strong evidence for graphite condensation in nova ejecta. Our discovery confirms that CO nova graphite and presolar iron sulfide contributed to the original building blocks of the solar system.