Astromaterials Research of Comet Wild 2: Terameters to Nanometers

MRS Bulletin ◽  
2010 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 150-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Brennan
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Elemental Abundance ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Isotopic Abundance ◽  
Solar System Formation ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The Past ◽  
Cometary Material ◽  
Sample Return Mission

AbstractStardust, a NASA sample return mission, safely landed in the Utah desert in January 2006 after a seven-year mission, bringing with it the first cometary material from a known parent source, Comet 81P/Wild 2. One of the mission goals is to determine the starting material of the solar system. By sampling a comet, which has spent most of the past 4.6 Gyr beyond the orbit of Neptune, we expect to measure material presumed to be unaffected by the ignition of the sun. The Stardust spacecraft swept through the tail of the comet, collecting hundreds of micron-sized particles from that stream into aerogel, a low-density silica foam. An international team of materials scientists have studied the mineralogy, petrology, and elemental and isotopic abundance of these materials. Our group has studied elemental abundance using an x-ray microprobe; the morphology of the particles was examined using an x-ray microscope, which enables nanotomography of the particles while encased in aerogel. The unexpected conclusions are that much of the material from this comet was formed near the sun, after its ignition, and soon thereafter transported to the outer reaches of the solar system. These results have changed the way astrophysicists think about solar system formation.

scholarly journals A unique basaltic micrometeorite expands the inventory of solar system planetary crusts

2009 ◽  
Vol 106 (17) ◽  
pp. 6904-6909 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthieu Gounelle ◽  
Marc Chaussidon ◽  
Alessandro Morbidelli ◽  
Jean-Alix Barrat ◽  
Cécile Engrand ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Mineral Chemistry ◽  
Carbonaceous Chondrites ◽  
Isotopic Data ◽  
Solar System Formation ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Dust Transport ◽  
Element Abundances ◽  
Transport Dynamics ◽  
Sample Return Mission

Micrometeorites with diameter ≈100–200 μm dominate the flux of extraterrestrial matter on Earth. The vast majority of micrometeorites are chemically, mineralogically, and isotopically related to carbonaceous chondrites, which amount to only 2.5% of meteorite falls. Here, we report the discovery of the first basaltic micrometeorite (MM40). This micrometeorite is unlike any other basalt known in the solar system as revealed by isotopic data, mineral chemistry, and trace element abundances. The discovery of a new basaltic asteroidal surface expands the solar system inventory of planetary crusts and underlines the importance of micrometeorites for sampling the asteroids' surfaces in a way complementary to meteorites, mainly because they do not suffer dynamical biases as meteorites do. The parent asteroid of MM40 has undergone extensive metamorphism, which ended no earlier than 7.9 Myr after solar system formation. Numerical simulations of dust transport dynamics suggest that MM40 might originate from one of the recently discovered basaltic asteroids that are not members of the Vesta family. The ability to retrieve such a wealth of information from this tiny (a few micrograms) sample is auspicious some years before the launch of a Mars sample return mission.

scholarly journals Beryllium-10 production in gaseous protoplanetary disks and implications for the astrophysical setting of refractory inclusions

2019 ◽  
Vol 624 ◽  
pp. A131 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Jacquet
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Protoplanetary Disks ◽  
Disk Surface ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Early Generation ◽  
X Ray ◽  
The Past ◽  
Show Evidence ◽  
Output Ratio ◽  
Condensation Front

Calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), the oldest known solids of the solar system, show evidence for the past presence of short-lived radionuclide beryllium-10, which was likely produced by spallation during protosolar flares. While such 10Be production has hitherto been modeled at the inner edge of the protoplanetary disk, I calculate here that spallation at the disk surface may reproduce the measured 10Be/9Be ratios at larger heliocentric distances. Beryllium-10 production in the gas prior to CAI formation would dominate that in the solid. Interestingly, provided the Sun’s proton to X-ray output ratio does not decrease strongly, 10Be/9Be at the CAI condensation front would increase with time, explaining the reduced values in a (presumably early) generation of CAIs with nucleosynthetic anomalies. CAIs thus need not have formed very close to the Sun and may have condensed at 0.1–1 AU where sufficiently high temperatures originally prevailed.

scholarly journals The frequency of stellar X-ray flares from a large-scale XMM-Newton sample

2015 ◽  
Vol 11 (S320) ◽  
pp. 134-137
Author(s):  
John P. Pye ◽  
Simon R. Rosen
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Solar Flare ◽  
Space Weather ◽  
White Light ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
The Sun ◽  
X Ray ◽  
Cool Star ◽  
Exoplanetary Systems ◽  
Solar Type

AbstractWe present estimates of cool-star X-ray flare rates determined from the XMM-Tycho survey (Pyeet al. 2015, A&A, 581, A28), and compare them with previously published values for the Sun and for other stellar EUV and white-light samples. We demonstrate the importance of applying appropriate corrections, especially in regard to the total, effective size of the stellar sample. Our results are broadly consistent with rates reported in the literature for Kepler white-light flares from solar-type stars, and with extrapolations of solar flare rates, indicating the potential of stellar X-ray flare observations to address issues such as ‘space weather’ in exoplanetary systems and our own solar system.

scholarly journals Coronal Elemental Abundance: New Results from Soft X-Ray Spectroscopy of the Sun

Solar Physics ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 295 (12) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shyama Narendranath ◽  
P. Sreekumar ◽  
Netra S. Pillai ◽  
Singam Panini ◽  
K Sankarasubramanian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Elemental Abundance ◽  
The Sun ◽  
X Ray

scholarly journals D/H ratios of the inner Solar System

2017 ◽  
Vol 375 (2094) ◽  
pp. 20150390 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. Hallis
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Giant Planet ◽  
Published Data ◽  
Solar System Formation ◽  
Atmospheric Processes ◽  
The Past ◽  
The Earth ◽  
Planetary Bodies ◽  
Original Water

The original hydrogen isotope (D/H) ratios of different planetary bodies may indicate where each body formed in the Solar System. However, geological and atmospheric processes can alter these ratios through time. Over the past few decades, D/H ratios in meteorites from Vesta and Mars, as well as from S- and C-type asteroids, have been measured. The aim of this article is to bring together all previously published data from these bodies, as well as the Earth, in order to determine the original D/H ratio for each of these inner Solar System planetary bodies. Once all secondary processes have been stripped away, the inner Solar System appears to be relatively homogeneous in terms of water D/H, with the original water D/H ratios of Vesta, Mars, the Earth, and S- and C-type asteroids all falling between δD values of −100‰ and −590‰. This homogeneity is in accord with the ‘Grand tack’ model of Solar System formation, where giant planet migration causes the S- and C-type asteroids to be mixed within 1 AU to eventually form the terrestrial planets. This article is part of the themed issue ‘The origin, history and role of water in the evolution of the inner Solar System’.

scholarly journals STARDUST: Comet and Interstellar Dust Sample Return Mission

1996 ◽  
Vol 150 ◽  
pp. 223-226 ◽  
Author(s):  
D.E. Brownlee ◽  
D. Burnett ◽  
B. Clark ◽  
M. S. Hanner ◽  
F. Horz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Interstellar Dust ◽  
Dust Sample ◽  
Flux Monitor ◽  
Microporous Silica ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Cometary Dust ◽  
Dust Flux ◽  
Sample Return Mission

AbstractSTARDUST, a Discovery-class mission, will return intact samples of cometary dust and volatiles from comet P/Wild 2, as well as samples of the interstellar dust moving through the solar system. Dust capture utilizes aerogel, a microporous silica that is capable of intact capture of hypervelocity particles. A navigation camera, an in situ dust analyzer, and a dust flux monitor complete the payload. The Wild 2 flyby takes place in January 2004, with Earth return in January 2006.

scholarly journals Comet C/2018 V1 (Machholz–Fujikawa–Iwamoto): dislodged from the Oort Cloud or coming from interstellar space?

2019 ◽  
Vol 489 (1) ◽  
pp. 951-961 ◽  
Author(s):  
C de la Fuente Marcos ◽  
R de la Fuente Marcos
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Dynamical Evolution ◽  
Oort Cloud ◽  
Interstellar Space ◽  
The Sun ◽  
The Past ◽  
Using Data ◽  
To Receive ◽  
Practical Feasibility

ABSTRACT The chance discovery of the first interstellar minor body, 1I/2017 U1 (‘Oumuamua), indicates that we may have been visited by such objects in the past and that these events may repeat in the future. Unfortunately, minor bodies following nearly parabolic or hyperbolic paths tend to receive little attention: over 3/4 of those known have data-arcs shorter than 30 d and, consistently, rather uncertain orbit determinations. This fact suggests that we may have observed interstellar interlopers in the past, but failed to recognize them as such due to insufficient data. Early identification of promising candidates by using N-body simulations may help in improving this situation, triggering follow-up observations before they leave the Solar system. Here, we use this technique to investigate the pre- and post-perihelion dynamical evolution of the slightly hyperbolic comet C/2018 V1 (Machholz–Fujikawa–Iwamoto) to understand its origin and relevance within the context of known parabolic and hyperbolic minor bodies. Based on the available data, our calculations suggest that although C/2018 V1 may be a former member of the Oort Cloud, an origin beyond the Solar system cannot be excluded. If extrasolar, it might have entered the Solar system from interstellar space at low relative velocity with respect to the Sun. The practical feasibility of this alternative scenario has been assessed within the kinematic context of the stellar neighbourhood of the Sun, using data from Gaia second data release, and two robust solar sibling candidates have been identified. Our results suggest that comets coming from interstellar space at low heliocentric velocities may not be rare.

Stellar-Mass Black Holes

2014 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles D. Bailyn
Keyword(s):  
Black Holes ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Empirical Study ◽  
Stellar Mass ◽  
The Sun ◽  
X Rays ◽  
X Ray ◽  
New Class ◽  
Total Luminosity ◽  
The 1960S

This chapter examines stellar-mass black holes. The empirical study of black holes began in the 1960s with the discovery of quasars and the advent of X-ray astronomy. X-ray detectors could detect X-rays coming from a particular direction—as the instrument rotated, the detector scanned the sky. It was not expected that X-ray sources from outside the solar system would be detectable. However, it was quickly discovered that there were strong X-ray sources that appeared in the same position in every scan. The inferred luminosity of the sources was hundreds or thousands of times brighter than the Sun. When coincident optical stars were identified, they proved to be relatively faint. Thus, it was clear that a new class of celestial sources must exist whose radiation is predominantly in the form of X-rays, with a total luminosity comparable to or greater than that of ordinary stars.

scholarly journals Sample return of primitive matter from the outer Solar System

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Vernazza ◽  
P. Beck ◽  
O. Ruesch ◽  
A. Bischoff ◽  
L. Bonal ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Small Body ◽  
Giant Planet ◽  
Small Diameter ◽  
Time Frame ◽  
Planetary Science ◽  
Outer Solar System ◽  
Small Bodies ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Sample Return Mission

AbstractThe last thirty years of cosmochemistry and planetary science have shown that one major Solar System reservoir is vastly undersampled in the available suite of extra-terrestrial materials, namely small bodies that formed in the outer Solar System (>10 AU). Because various dynamical evolutionary processes have modified their initial orbits (e.g., giant planet migration, resonances), these objects can be found today across the entire Solar System as P/D near-Earth and main-belt asteroids, Jupiter and Neptune Trojans, comets, Centaurs, and small (diameter < 200 km) trans-Neptunian objects. This reservoir is of tremendous interest, as it is recognized as the least processed since the dawn of the Solar System and thus the closest to the starting materials from which the Solar System formed. Some of the next major breakthroughs in planetary science will come from studying outer Solar System samples (volatiles and refractory constituents) in the laboratory. Yet, this can only be achieved by an L-class mission that directly collects and returns to Earth materials from this reservoir. It is thus not surprising that two White Papers advocating a sample return mission of a primitive Solar System small body (ideally a comet) were submitted to ESA in response to its Voyage 2050 call for ideas for future L-class missions in the 2035-2050 time frame. One of these two White Papers is presented in this article.

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