TOF-SIMS analysis of cometary particles extracted from Stardust aerogel
Citation
Stephan, T., Flynn, G. J., Sandford, S. A., & Zolensky, M. E. (2008). TOF‐SIMS analysis of cometary particles extracted from Stardust aerogel. Meteoritics & Planetary Science, 43(1‐2), 285-298.Publisher
The Meteoritical SocietyJournal
Meteoritics & Planetary ScienceAdditional Links
https://meteoritical.org/Abstract
Sections of seven cometary fragments extracted from the aerogel collector flown on the Stardust mission to comet 81P/Wild 2 were investigated with TOF-SIMS. These grains showed a rather heterogeneous chemical and mineralogical composition on a submicrometer scale. However, their average chemical composition is close to bulk CI chondritic values, which is consistent with analyses of numerous Stardust samples using various techniques. As a result, the TOF-SIMS analyses support the conclusion that Wild 2 has a CI-like bulk composition. The cometary particles resemble anhydrous chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles, which have previously been suggested to originate from comets. For one of the fragments, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons that could possibly be attributed to the comet were observed.Type
Articletext
Language
enISSN
1945-5100ae974a485f413a2113503eed53cd6c53
10.1111/j.1945-5100.2008.tb00623.x