Characterization of Three Carbon- and Nitrogen-Rich Particles from Comet 81P/WILDComets may sample the early solar system s complement of volatile-forming elements - including C and N - more fully and reliably than do the terrestrial planets or asteroids. Until recently, all elemental analyses of unambiguously cometary material were carried out remotely. The return of the Stardust mission makes it possible to analyze documented material from P81/Wild 2 in the laboratory Wild 2 particles fragmented when they stopped in the aerogel collectors. We have studied three fragments thought to be rich in C and N by using several techniques: FTIR to characterize organic matter; synchrotron-induced x-ray fluorescence (SXRF) to determine Fe and certain element/Fe ratios; SEM to image sample morphology and to detect semiquantitatively Mg, Al, Si, Ca, and Fe; and nuclear reaction analysis (NRA) to measure C, N, O, and Si.
Document ID
20070006747
Acquisition Source
Johnson Space Center
Document Type
Conference Paper
Authors
Gallien, J.-P. (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France)
Khodja, H. (Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Gif-sur-Yvette, France)
Herzog, G. F. (Rutgers Univ. Piscataway, NJ, United States)
Taylor, S. (Army Cold Regions Research and Engineering Lab. Hanover, NH, United States)
Koepsell, E. (Dartmouth Coll. Hanover, NH, United States)
Daghlian, C. P. (Dartmouth Coll. Hanover, NH, United States)
Flynn, G. J. (State Univ. of New York Plattsburgh, NY, United States)
Sitnitsky, I. (State Univ. of New York Plattsburgh, NY, United States)
Lanzirotti, A. (Chicago Univ. Chicago, IL, United States)
Sutton, S. R. (Chicago Univ. Chicago, IL, United States)
Keller, L. P. (NASA Johnson Space Center Houston, TX, United States)