The Importance of Phobos Sample Return for Understanding the Mars-Moon System

Abstract Phobos and Deimos occupy unique positions both scientifically and programmatically on the road to the exploration of the solar system. Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) plans a Phobos sample return mission (MMX: Martian Moons eXploration). The MMX spacecraft is scheduled to be launched in 2024, orbit both Phobos and Deimos (multiple flybys), and retrieve and return >10 g of Phobos regolith back to Earth in 2029. The Phobos regolith represents a mixture of endogenous Phobos building blocks and exogenous materials that contain solar system projectiles (e.g., interplanetary dust particles and coarser materials) and ejecta from Mars and Deimos. Under the condition that the representativeness of the sampling site(s) is guaranteed by remote sensing observations in the geologic context of Phobos, laboratory analysis (e.g., mineralogy, bulk composition, O-Cr-Ti isotopic systematics, and radiometric dating) of the returned sample will provide crucial information about the moon’s origin: capture of an asteroid or in-situ formation by a giant impact. If Phobos proves to be a captured object, isotopic compositions of volatile elements (e.g., D/H, 13C/12C, 15N/14N) in inorganic and organic materials will shed light on both organic-mineral-water/ice interactions in a primitive rocky body originally formed in the outer solar system and the delivery process of water and organics into the inner rocky planets.

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Dust Around Young Stars: How Related to Solar System Dust?

Highlights of Astronomy ◽

10.1017/s1539299600011503 ◽

1995 ◽

Vol 10 ◽

pp. 351-392 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Martha S. Hanner

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Interplanetary Space ◽

Circumstellar Disks ◽

Theoretical Work ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Young Stars ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Technical Advances ◽

Dust Disks

Study of the dust in circumstellar disks around young stars is currently an extremely active area in astronomy. There is little doubt that accretion disks are a natural part of protostellar evolution. Much recent observational and theoretical work is giving us a clearer picture of the physical conditions in dust disks and their evolutionary progression. IRAS observations revealed that many main-sequence stars, such as p Pictoris, have circumstellar disks. But whether these disks are related to planetary formation is not yet understood.A portion of the dust in disks around young stars ultimately may be incorporated into planetary systems. Thus, study of the dust in our own solar system complements the remote sensing of protostellar regions and aids in reconstructing the evolutionary history of the dust. Since comets formed in the cold outer regions of the solar nebula, they may contain intact interstellar grains. As the comets lose material during passage through the warm inner solar system, some of these grains will be released into interplanetary space. Technical advances now allow analysis of individual micrometer or smaller grains in interplanetary dust particles and primitive meteorite samples. Isotopic anomalies and patterns of crystal growth in these particles are yielding tantalizing clues about the interstellar material incorporated into these solar system samples.

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Interstellar and Solar System organic matter preserved in interplanetary dust

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921316005718 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 11 (A29B) ◽

pp. 426-426

Author(s):

Scott Messenger ◽

K. Nakamura-Messenger

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Solar System ◽

Carbonaceous Material ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Fine Grained ◽

Mass Fractionation ◽

Current State ◽

Short Period

AbstractInterplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the Earths stratosphere derive from collisions among asteroids and by the disruption and outgassing of short-period comets. Chondritic porous (CP) IDPs are among the most primitive Solar System materials. CP-IDPs have been linked to cometary parent bodies by their mineralogy, textures, C-content, and dynamical histories. CP-IDPs are fragile, fine-grained (< um) assemblages of anhydrous amorphous and crystalline silicates, oxides and sulfides bound together by abundant carbonaceous material. Ancient silicate, oxide, and SiC stardust grains exhibiting highly anomalous isotopic compositions are abundant in CP-IDPs, constituting 0.01-1% of the mass of the particles. The organic matter in CP-IDPs is isotopically anomalous, with enrichments in D/H reaching 50x the terrestrial SMOW value and 15N/14N ratios up to 3x terrestrial standard compositions. These anomalies are indicative of low T (10-100 K) mass fractionation in cold molecular cloud or the outermost reaches of the protosolar disk. The organic matter shows distinct morphologies, including sub-um globules, bubbly textures, featureless, and with mineral inclusions. Infrared spectroscopy and mass spectrometry studies of organic matter in IDPs reveals diverse species including aliphatic and aromatic compounds. The organic matter with the highest isotopic anomalies appears to be richer in aliphatic compounds. These materials also bear similarities and differences with primitive, isotopically anomalous organic matter in carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. The diversity of the organic chemistry, morphology, and isotopic properties in IDPs and meteorites reflects variable preservation of interstellar/primordial components and Solar System processing. One unifying feature is the presence of sub-um isotopically anomalous organic globules among all primitive materials, including IDPs, meteorites, and comet Wild-2 samples returned by the Stardust mission. We will present an overview of the current state of understanding of the properties and origins of organic matter in primitive IDPs.

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Stardust in meteorites: A link between stars and the Solar System

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s174392130802190x ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 4 (S251) ◽

pp. 341-342

Author(s):

Ernst Zinner

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Asymptotic Giant Branch ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Red Giants ◽

Agb Stars ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Mixing Processes ◽

Isotopic Compositions ◽

Stellar Sources

AbstractUltimately, all of the solids in the Solar System, including ourselves, consist of elements that were made in stars by stellar nucelosynthesis. However, most of the material from many different stellar sources that went into the making of the Solar System was thoroughly mixed, obliterating any information about its origin. An exception are tiny grains of preserved stardust found in primitive meteorites, micrometeorites, and interplanetary dust particles. These μm- and sub-μm-sized presolar grains are recognized as stardust by their isotopic compositions, which are completely different from those of the Solar System. They condensed in outflows from late-type stars and in SN ejecta and were included in meteorites, from which they can be isolated and studied for their isotopic compositions in the laboratory. Thus these grains constitute a link between us and our stellar ancestors. They provide new information on stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis, mixing processes in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and supernovae, and galactic chemical evolution. Red giants, AGB stars, Type II supernovae, and possibly novae have been identified as stellar sources of the grains. Stardust phases identified so far include silicates, oxides such as corundum, spinel, and hibonite, graphite, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, titanium carbide, and Fe-Ni metal.

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Multiple generations of grain aggregation in different environments preceded solar system body formation

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1720167115 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 115 (26) ◽

pp. 6608-6613 ◽

Cited By ~ 10

Author(s):

Hope A. Ishii ◽

John P. Bradley ◽

Hans A. Bechtel ◽

Donald E. Brownlee ◽

Karen C. Bustillo ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Organic Carbon ◽

Molecular Cloud ◽

Interstellar Dust ◽

Solar Nebula ◽

Carbon Matrix ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

System Body

The solar system formed from interstellar dust and gas in a molecular cloud. Astronomical observations show that typical interstellar dust consists of amorphous (a-) silicate and organic carbon. Bona fide physical samples for laboratory studies would yield unprecedented insight about solar system formation, but they were largely destroyed. The most likely repositories of surviving presolar dust are the least altered extraterrestrial materials, interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) with probable cometary origins. Cometary IDPs contain abundant submicrona-silicate grains called GEMS (glass with embedded metal and sulfides), believed to be carbon-free. Some have detectable isotopically anomalousa-silicate components from other stars, proving they are preserved dust inherited from the interstellar medium. However, it is debated whether the majority of GEMS predate the solar system or formed in the solar nebula by condensation of high-temperature (>1,300 K) gas. Here, we map IDP compositions with single nanometer-scale resolution and find that GEMS contain organic carbon. Mapping reveals two generations of grain aggregation, the key process in growth from dust grains to planetesimals, mediated by carbon. GEMS grains, some witha-silicate subgrains mantled by organic carbon, comprise the earliest generation of aggregates. These aggregates (and other grains) are encapsulated in lower-density organic carbon matrix, indicating a second generation of aggregation. Since this organic carbon thermally decomposes above ∼450 K, GEMS cannot have accreted in the hot solar nebula, and formed, instead, in the cold presolar molecular cloud and/or outer protoplanetary disk. We suggest that GEMS are consistent with surviving interstellar dust, condensed in situ, and cycled through multiple molecular clouds.

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Interplanetary Dust Particles

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Planetary Science ◽

10.1093/acrefore/9780190647926.013.143 ◽

2020 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

George J. Flynn

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Thermal Processing ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Zodiacal Cloud ◽

The Earth ◽

Oceanic Sediments ◽

Solar Ultraviolet

Scattered sunlight from interplanetary dust particles, mostly produced by comets and asteroids, orbiting the Sun are visible at dusk or dawn as the Zodiacal Cloud. Impacts onto the space-exposed surfaces of Earth-orbiting satellites indicate that, in the current era, thousands of tons of interplanetary dust enters the Earth’s atmosphere every year. Some particles vaporize forming meteors while others survive atmospheric deceleration and settle to the surface of the Earth. NASA has collected interplanetary dust particles from the Earth’s stratosphere using high-altitude aircraft since the mid-1970s. Detailed characterization of these particles shows that some are unique samples of Solar System and presolar material, never affected by the aqueous and thermal processing that overprints the record of formation from the Solar Protoplanetary Disk in the meteorites. These particles preserve the record of grain and dust formation from the disk. This record suggests that many of the crystalline minerals, dominated by crystalline silicates (olivine and pyroxene) and Fe-sulfides, condensed from gas in the inner Solar System and were then transported outward to the colder outer Solar System where carbon-bearing ices condensed on the surfaces of the grains. Irradiation by solar ultraviolet light and cosmic rays produced thin organic coatings on the grain surfaces that likely aided in grain sticking, forming the first dust particles of the Solar System. This continuous, planet-wide rain of interplanetary dust particles can be monitored by the accumulation of 3He, implanted into the interplanetary dust particles by the Solar Wind while they were in space, in oceanic sediments. The interplanetary dust, which is rich in organic carbon, may have contributed important pre-biotic organic matter important to the development of life to the surface of the early Earth.

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The Contribution of Kuiper Belt Dust Grains to the Inner Solar System

International Astronomical Union Colloquium ◽

10.1017/s025292110050147x ◽

1996 ◽

Vol 150 ◽

pp. 163-166

Author(s):

Jer-Chyi Liou ◽

Herbert A. Zook ◽

Stanley F. Dermott

Keyword(s):

Solar System ◽

Interstellar Dust ◽

Numerical Study ◽

Kuiper Belt ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Dust Grains ◽

Zodiacal Light ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

The Earth

AbstractThe recent discovery of the so-called Kuiper belt objects has prompted the idea that these objects produce dust grains that may contribute significantly to the interplanetary dust population at 1 AU. We have completed a numerical study of the orbital evolution of dust grains, of diameters 1 to 9 μm, that originate in the region of the Kuiper belt. Our results show that about 80% of the grains are ejected from the Solar System by the giant planets while the remaining 20% of the grains evolve all the way to the Sun. Surprisingly, these dust grains have small orbital eccentricities and inclinations when they cross the orbit of the Earth. This makes them behave more like asteroidal than cometary-type dust particles. This also enhances their chances to be captured by the Earth and makes them a possible source of the collected interplanetary dust particles (IDPs); in particular, they represent a possible source that brings primitive/organic materials from the outer Solar System to the Earth.When collisions with interstellar dust grains are considered, however, Kuiper belt dust grains larger than about 9 μm appear likely to be collisionally shattered before they can evolve to the inner part of the Solar System. Therefore, Kuiper belt dust grains may not, as they are expected to be small, contribute significantly to the zodiacal light.

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Dome C ultracarbonaceous Antarctic micrometeorites

Astronomy and Astrophysics ◽

10.1051/0004-6361/201731322 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 609 ◽

pp. A65 ◽

Cited By ~ 20

Author(s):

E. Dartois ◽

C. Engrand ◽

J. Duprat ◽

M. Godard ◽

E. Charon ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Solar System ◽

Absorption Band ◽

Raman Spectra ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Organic Component ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Lower Oxygen ◽

Carbonyl Absorption Band

Context. UltraCarbonaceous Antarctic MicroMeteorites (UCAMMs) represent a small fraction of interplanetary dust particles reaching the Earth’s surface and contain large amounts of an organic component not found elsewhere. They are most probably sampling a contribution from the outer regions of the solar system to the local interplanetary dust particle (IDP) flux. Aims. We characterize UCAMMs composition focusing on the organic matter, and compare the results to the insoluble organic matter (IOM) from primitive meteorites, IDPs, and the Earth. Methods. We acquired synchrotron infrared microspectroscopy (μFTIR) and μRaman spectra of eight UCAMMs from the Concordia/CSNSM collection, as well as N/C atomic ratios determined with an electron microprobe. Results. The spectra are dominated by an organic component with a low aliphatic CH versus aromatic C=C ratio, and a higher nitrogen fraction and lower oxygen fraction compared to carbonaceous chondrites and IDPs. The UCAMMs carbonyl absorption band is in agreement with a ketone or aldehyde functional group. Some of the IR and Raman spectra show a C≡N band corresponding to a nitrile. The absorption band profile from 1400 to 1100 cm-1 is compatible with the presence of C-N bondings in the carbonaceous network, and is spectrally different from that reported in meteorite IOM. We confirm that the silicate-to-carbon content in UCAMMs is well below that reported in IDPs and meteorites. Together with the high nitrogen abundance relative to carbon building the organic matter matrix, the most likely scenario for the formation of UCAMMs occurs via physicochemical mechanisms taking place in a cold nitrogen rich environment, like the surface of icy parent bodies in the outer solar system. The composition of UCAMMs provides an additional hint of the presence of a heliocentric positive gradient in the C/Si and N/C abundance ratios in the solar system protoplanetary disc evolution.

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Presolar grains in the Solar System: Connections to stellar and interstellar organics

Proceedings of the International Astronomical Union ◽

10.1017/s1743921308021911 ◽

2008 ◽

Vol 4 (S251) ◽

pp. 343-344

Author(s):

Larry R. Nittler

Keyword(s):

Organic Matter ◽

Solar System ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Asymptotic Giant Branch ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Molecular Chemistry ◽

Stellar Outflows ◽

Isotopic Compositions ◽

Polycyclic Aromatic

AbstractA small fraction of primitive meteorites and interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) consists of grains of presolar stardust. These grains have extremely unusual isotopic compositions, relative to all other planetary materials, indicating that they condensed in the outflows and explosions of prior generations of stars (Clayton & Nittler 2004). Identified presolar grain types include silicate, oxide and carbonaceous phases. The latter include graphitic carbon, diamond and SiC. Although many of these phases do not have a direct connection to organic chemistry, this is not true of the graphitic spherules. Many of these, with isotopic compositions indicating an origin in C-rich asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star outflows, have a structure consisting of naonocrystalline cores surrounded by well-graphitized C (Bernatowicz et al. 1996). The cores include isotopically anomalous polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (Messenger et al. 1998) and represent a link between molecular chemistry and dust condensation in stellar outflows. Meteorites and IDPs also contain abundant isotopically anomalous organic matter, including distinct organic grains, some of which probably formed in stellar outflows and/or the interstellar medium (ISM) (Busemann et al. 2006, Floss et al. 2004). In some IDPs, deuterium- and 15N-enriched organic matter is closely associated with presolar silicate grains (Messenger et al. 2005, Nguyen et al. 2007), suggesting an association in the ISM prior to Solar System formation.

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Origin of the RNA world: The fate of nucleobases in warm little ponds

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences ◽

10.1073/pnas.1710339114 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 114 (43) ◽

pp. 11327-11332 ◽

Cited By ~ 63

Author(s):

Ben K. D. Pearce ◽

Ralph E. Pudritz ◽

Dmitry A. Semenov ◽

Thomas K. Henning

Keyword(s):

Numerical Model ◽

Prebiotic Chemistry ◽

Rna World ◽

Building Blocks ◽

Interplanetary Dust ◽

Global Ocean ◽

Dust Particles ◽

Early Earth ◽

Interplanetary Dust Particles ◽

Cellular Life

Before the origin of simple cellular life, the building blocks of RNA (nucleotides) had to form and polymerize in favorable environments on early Earth. At this time, meteorites and interplanetary dust particles delivered organics such as nucleobases (the characteristic molecules of nucleotides) to warm little ponds whose wet–dry cycles promoted rapid polymerization. We build a comprehensive numerical model for the evolution of nucleobases in warm little ponds leading to the emergence of the first nucleotides and RNA. We couple Earth’s early evolution with complex prebiotic chemistry in these environments. We find that RNA polymers must have emerged very quickly after the deposition of meteorites (less than a few years). Their constituent nucleobases were primarily meteoritic in origin and not from interplanetary dust particles. Ponds appeared as continents rose out of the early global ocean, but this increasing availability of “targets” for meteorites was offset by declining meteorite bombardment rates. Moreover, the rapid losses of nucleobases to pond seepage during wet periods, and to UV photodissociation during dry periods, mean that the synthesis of nucleotides and their polymerization into RNA occurred in just one to a few wet–dry cycles. Under these conditions, RNA polymers likely appeared before 4.17 billion years ago.

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