Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-26T04:35:26.957Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Transmission Electron Microscopy Studies of Natural Nanomaterials from the Solar System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Z. R. Dai ,
J. P. Bradley ,
T. P. Snow  and
Z. L Wang
Z. R. Dai
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332-0245
J. P. Bradley
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332-0245
T. P. Snow
Affiliation:
Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, BoulderCO80309-0389
Z. L Wang
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332-0245
Get access

Extract

It is widely appreciated that the study of (man-made) nanomaterials is a new frontier in materials science, but it is not well appreciated that (natural) nanomaterials represent a new frontier in meteoritics and planetary science [1]. During the next decade the nanogram to microgram quantities of extraterrestrial materials will be returned to Earth from a variety of solar system bodies including comets [2]. Studies of cometary interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the stratosphere, as well as mass spectrometry data from grains analyzed in-situ at comet Halley, suggest that the returned comet samples will be heterogeneous on a scale of nanometers [3, 4]. (A single 5-10μm diameter IDP may contain >106 individual grains and many different minerals (metal, carbonaceous phases, silicates, sulfides, etc.)). More recent observations of dust around stars, in interplanetary space, and at comet Hale-Bopp indicate that the predominant astronomical grain size is in the nanometer to submicrometer size range [5,6].

Type
Ceramics & Minerals
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 6 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis 2000, Microscopy Society of America 58th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 34th Annual Meeting, Microscopical Society of Canada/Societe de Microscopie de Canada 27th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 13-17, 2000 , August 2000 , pp. 412 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1.Zolensky, M. E. et al., Met. Planet Sci., 35 (2000)9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
2.Brownlee, D. E. et al., Met. Planet Sci., 32 (1997)A22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
3.Bradley, J. P., Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta, 58 (1994)2123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
4.Jessberger, E. K. et al, Nature, 332 (1988)691.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
5.Crovisier, J. et al., Science, 275 (1997)1904.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
6.Wooden, D. H. et al., Astrophys. J., 517 (1999)1034.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
7.Bradley, J. P. et al., Science, 285 (1999)1629.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
8.Zolensky, M. E. & Thomas, K. L., Met. Planet. Sci., 59 (1995)4707.Google Scholar
9.Lauretta, D. S. et al., Icarus, 122 (1996)288.CrossRefGoogle Scholar