Interstellar carbon in meteorites

The Murchison and Allende chondrites contain up to 5 parts per million carbon that is enriched in carbon-13 by up to + 1100 per mil (the ratio of carbon-12 to carbon-13 is approximately 42, compared to 88 to 93 for terrestrial carbon). This "heavy" carbon is associated with neon-22 and with anomalous krypton and xenon showing the signature of the s-process (neutron capture on a slow time scale). It apparently represents interstellar grains ejected from late-type stars. A second anomalous xenon component ("CCFXe") is associated with a distinctive, light carbon (depleted in carbon-13 by 38 per mil), which, however, falls within the terrestrial range and hence may be of either local or exotic origin.     

Electrolytic dissolution of iron meteorites

When iron meteorites are dissolved anodically in neutral solution, nonmetallic inclusions are not attached and collect at the bottom of the anode compartment. When the meteorites contain both kamacite and taenite, the kamacite dissolves preferentially, revealing a three-dimensional Widmanst?tten pattern.     

Nitrogen abundances in chondritic meteorites

Carrier-gas fusion extractions of total nitrogen in 22 chondritic meteorites indicate a wide variation in total nitrogen contents, ranging from 660 parts per million for an enstatite chondrite to 18 parts per million for an ordinary chondrite. Total nitrogen and total carbon contents of individual chondrites do not show a positive correlation.     

Endogenous carbon in carbonaceous meteorites

Seven carbonaceous chondrites have been analyzed for soluble organic compounds, carbonate, and residual carbon. Carbon-13/carbon-12 isotopic mneasurements on these fractions gave the following values relative to a marine carbonate standard: carbonate, +40 to +70 per mil; residual carbon, -15 to -17 per mil; soluble organic material, -17 to -27 per mil, with one value of -5.5 per mil. These values are interpreted to indicate that carbonate, residual carbon, and part of the extractable organic material are endogenous to these meteorites.     

Meteors and meteorites detected by infrasound

The Lamont-Doherty tripartite array of microphones has detected acoustic signals from meteors. These signals yield trace velocities which vary rapidly from supersonic to nearly infinite values for successive waves or wave groups, indicating a rapidly moving source. The trajectory is constructed on the basis of an assumption of reasonable path elevations. With a second array it would be possible to obtain more positive trajectory fixes and probable ground impact locations. Initial results suggest that most acoustic meteors are meteoritetype objects rather than the low-density objects commonly detected at high elevations by photographic and radio techniques.     

Potassium: argon dating of iron meteorites

The potassium:argon age of the metal phase of Weekeroo Station iron meteorite, determined by neutronactivation analysis, is about 10(10) years; it is similar to ages previously measured for other iron meteorites, but distinctly disagrees with a strontium: rubidium age of 4.7 X 10(9) years measured by other workers on silicate inclusions in this meteorite.     

Graphite whiskers in CV3 meteorites

Graphite whiskers (GWs), an allotrope of carbon that has been proposed to occur in space, have been discovered in three CV-type carbonaceous chondrites via Raman imaging and electron microscopy. The GWs are associated with high-temperature calcium-aluminum inclusion (CAI) rims and interiors, with the rim of a dark inclusion, and within an inclusion inside an unusual chondrule that bears mineralogy and texture indicative of high-temperature processing. Current understanding of CAI formation places their condensation, and that of associated GWs, relatively close to the Sun and early in the condensation sequence of protoplanetary disk materials. If this is the case, then it is a possibility that GWs are expelled from any young solar system early in its history, thus populating interstellar space with diffuse GWs. Graphite whiskers have been postulated to play a role in the near-infrared (near-IR) dimming of type Ia supernovae, as well as in the thermalization of both the cosmic IR and microwave background and in galactic center dimming between 3 and 9 micrometers. Our observations, along with the further possibility that GWs could be manufactured during supernovae, suggest that GWs may have substantial effects in observational astronomy.     

Martian surface paleotemperatures from thermochronology of meteorites

The temporal evolution of past martian surface temperatures is poorly known. We used thermochronology and published noble gas and petrographic data to constrain the temperature histories of the nakhlites and martian meteorite ALH84001. We found that the nakhlites have not been heated to more than 350 degrees C since they formed. Our calculations also suggest that for most of the past 4 billion years, ambient near-surface temperatures on Mars are unlikely to have been much higher than the present cold (<0 degrees C) state.     

Hexagonal diamonds in meteorites: implications

A new polymorph of carbon, hexagonal diamond, has been discovered in the Canyon Diablo and Goalpara meteorites. This phase had been synthesized recently under specific high-pressure conditions in the laboratory. Our results: provide strong evidence that diamonds found in these meteorites were produced by intense shock pressures acting on crystalline graphite inclusions present within the meteorite before impact, rather than by disintegration of larger, statically grown diamonds, as some theories propose.     

Oxygen isotope variation in stony-iron meteorites

Asteroidal material, delivered to Earth as meteorites, preserves a record of the earliest stages of planetary formation. High-precision oxygen isotope analyses for the two major groups of stony-iron meteorites (main-group pallasites and mesosiderites) demonstrate that each group is from a distinct asteroidal source. Mesosiderites are isotopically identical to the howardite-eucrite-diogenite clan and, like them, are probably derived from the asteroid 4 Vesta. Main-group pallasites represent intermixed core-mantle material from a single disrupted asteroid and have no known equivalents among the basaltic meteorites. The stony-iron meteorites demonstrate that intense asteroidal deformation accompanied planetary accretion in the early Solar System.     

Photochemical mass-independent sulfur isotopes in achondritic meteorites

Sulfides from four achondrite meteorite groups are enriched in 33S (up to 0.040 per mil) as compared with primitive chondrites and terrestrial standards. Stellar nucleosynthesis and cosmic ray spallation are ruled out as causes of the anomaly, but photochemical reactions in the early solar nebula could produce the isotopic composition. The large 33S excess present in oldhamite from the Norton County aubrite (0.161 per mil) suggests that refractory sulfide minerals condensed from a nebular gas with an enhanced carbon-oxygen ratio, but otherwise solar composition is the carrier. The presence of a mass-independent sulfur effect in meteorites argues for a similar process that could account for oxygen isotopic anomalies observed in refractory inclusions in primitive chondrites.