Solar wind record in the lunar regolith - Nitrogen and noble gasesThe measured elemental and isotopic abundances of noble gases and nitrogen have been measured in five different samples of lunar regolith material. It was found noble gases liberated by chemical attack on grain surfaces from two of the samples were solar. The Ne-20/Ne-22 ratio in the two grain surface reservoir is 13.5-13.6, compared to the average value of 13.7 + or - 0.3 measured in the Apollo solar wind collection foils (Gochsler and Geiss, 1977). It is suggested that the noble gases in grain interiors have suffered severe mass fractionation. The surface-sited N/Ar in an ilmenite sample exceeds the predicted solar ratio by more than a factor of 10. It is concluded that the solar system abundances of Cameron (1982) describe the elemental composition of the noble gases in the solar wind very well.
Document ID
19890023488
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Frick, Urs (NAGRA Baden, Switzerland)
Becker, Richard H. (Minnesota Univ. Minneapolis, MN, United States)
Pepin, Robert O. (Minnesota, University Minneapolis, United States)