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Noble Gases in Terrestrial Planets: Evidence for Cometary Impacts?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2016

Tobias Owen ,
Akiva Bar-Nun  and
Idit Kleinfeld
Tobias Owen
Affiliation:
Institute for Astronomy , University of HawaiiHonolulu, Hawaii 96822, U.S.A.
Akiva Bar-Nun
Affiliation:
Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel
Idit Kleinfeld
Affiliation:
Department of Geophysics and Planetary Sciences, Tel Aviv University, Tel Aviv 69978, Israel

Abstract

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The possible role of comets in bringing volatiles to the inner planets is investigated by means of laboratory studies of the ability of ice to trap gases at low temperatures. The pattern of the heavy noble gases formed in the atmosphere of Venus can be explained by the impact of a planetesimal composed of ices formed in the range of 20 to 30 K. The noble gas patterns on Mars and Earth are less explicable by cometary bombardment alone.

Type
Section III: Comets, Origins, and Evolution
Information
International Astronomical Union Colloquium , Volume 116 , Issue 1: Comets in the Post-Halley Era , 1989 , pp. 429 - 437
Copyright
Copyright © Kluwer 1991

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