Infrared Spectroscopy of Wild 2 Particle Hypervelocity Tracks in Stardust Aerogel: Evidence for the presence of Volatile Organics in Comet Dust
Infrared spectroscopy maps of some tracks, made by cometary dust from 81P/Wild 2 impacting Stardust aerogel, reveal an interesting distribution of volatile organic material. Out of six examined tracks three show presence of volatile organic components possibly injected into the aerogel during particle impacts. When particle tracks contained excess volatile organic material, they were found to be -CH{sub 2}-rich. Off-normal particle tracks could indicate impacts by lower velocity particles that could have bounced off the Whipple shield, therefore carry off some contamination from it. However, this theory is not supported by data that show excess organic-rich material in normal and off-normal particle tracks. It is clear that the population of cometary particles impacting the Stardust aerogel collectors also include grains that contained little or none of this volatile organic component. This observation is consistent with the highly heterogeneous nature of the collected grains, as seen by a multitude of other analytical techniques. We propose that at least some of the volatile organic material might be of cometary origin based on supporting data shown in this paper. However, we also acknowledge the presence of carbon (primarily as -CH{sub 3}) in the original aerogel, which complicates interpretation of these results.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab. (LLNL), Livermore, CA (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 965468
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-JRNL-234346; TRN: US200919%%588
- Journal Information:
- Meteoritical & Planetary Science, vol. 44, no. 4, April 1, 2009, pp. 471-484, Vol. 44, Issue 4
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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