Oral histories in meteoritics and planetary science: IX. Heinrich Wänke

Abstract

In this interview, Heinrich Wänke, a nuclear physicist, describes how he first encountered meteorite studies in 1953 when, after finishing his Ph.D. thesis in Vienna, he joined the research group of Professor Friedrich Paneth at the University of Durham, England. There, he worked on problems relating to uranium-helium ages of iron meteorites. A year later, Wänke moved with Paneth to the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie at Mainz in Germany. He continued meteorite research but also conducted experiments to measure noble gases in the stratosphere, a project that brought him to America in 1956 where he first met Professor Harold C. Urey, with whom he formed a lasting friendship. After Paneth's early death in 1958, Wänke remained at the Institute in Mainz and pursued research on topics such as the isotopic compositions of cosmogenic noble gases in iron meteorites and the abundances of primordial rare gases implanted by solar wind particles in brecciated stony meteorites. In 1969, Wänke was appointed to fill Paneth's position as a director as the Max-Planck-Institut für Chemie just in time for him to lead a wide spectrum of research projects on the lunar rocks and soils. Froom the geochemical evidence these studies provided, he theorized on the formation of the Moon by the giant impact hypothesis, and proposed a two-component model for the cosmic composition of the Earth's mantle. His group also investigated the isotopic chemistry of martian meteorites and its hearing on the origin and evolution of Mars, which he viewed as a cored planet that underwent early differentiation without subsequent convective homogenization. In 1980, the Meteoritical Society awarded the Leonard Medal to Heinrich Wänke for his numerous contribution of fundamental importance to meteoritics and planetary science.