Is osmium chemically fractionated in the moonAn investigation was conducted involving the determination of Os in 53 highland samples from the Apollo 14-17 missions. The Os/Ir ratio was found to remain essentially constant at 1.05 as Os and Ir abundances vary over four orders of magnitude. The Os-Au and the Os-Ni correlation in highland samples is presented in graphs. The graphs show that the majority of highland samples have Os/Au and Os/Ni ratios somewhat below the cosmic value. But there is no reason to attribute this trend to a loss of Os by local processes, because two other refractory siderophiles, Ir and Re, show exactly the same trend. Results on more than 150 analyzed highland samples show that meteoritic groups of low (Ir, Re, Os)/Au ratio are much more common at the Apollo landing sites than are groups of high ratio.
Document ID
19780057645
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Proceedings
Authors
Hertogen, J. (Chicago Univ. Chicago, IL, United States)
Janssens, M.-J. (Chicago, University Chicago, Ill., United States)