3D Fluorescent and Reflective Imaging of Whole Stardust Tracks in Aerogel

Conference · Mon Nov 07 04:00:00 EST 2011

OSTI ID:1023026

Greenberg, M; Ebel, D S ^[1]

---

1. AMNH

The NASA Stardust mission returned to earth in 2006 with the cometary collector having captured over 1,000 particles in an aerogel medium at a relative velocity of 6.1 km/s. Particles captured in aerogel were heated, disaggregated and dispersed along 'tracks' or cavities in aerogel, singular tracks representing a history of one capture event. It has been our focus to chemically and morphologically characterize whole tracks in 3-dimensions, utilizing solely non-destructive methods. To this end, we have used a variety of methods: 3D Laser Scanning Confocal Microscopy (LSCM), synchrotron X-ray fluorescence (SXRF), and synchrotron X-ray diffraction (SXRD). In the past months we have developed two new techniques to aid in data collection. (1) We have received a new confocal microscope which has enabled autofluorescent and spectral imaging of aerogel samples. (2) We have developed a stereo-SXRF technique to chemically identify large grains in SXRF maps in 3-space. The addition of both of these methods to our analytic abilities provides a greater understanding of the mechanisms and results of track formation.

• Research Organization: Advanced Photon Source (APS), Argonne National Laboratory (ANL), Argonne, IL (US)
• Sponsoring Organization: NSFNASA
• OSTI ID: 1023026
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: ENGLISH

Related Subjects

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS
CAVITIES
FLUORESCENCE
LASERS
MICROSCOPES
MICROSCOPY
NASA
SYNCHROTRONS
VELOCITY
X-RAY DIFFRACTION