Investigating the Early Solar System with Isotope Cosmochemistry - Manchester Cosmochemistry Rolling Grant
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Manchester
Department Name: Earth Atmospheric and Env Sciences
Abstract
We're all familiar with the solar system, but how did it come to be the way it is today? We believe the story started with a cloud of dust and gas, much like those we can observe elsewhere in the galaxy today. We plan to examine some samples of this dust that were preserved in meteorites and try to learn about the stars they came from and what happened to them in the cloud from which the solar sytem formed. We also plan to study dust entering the solar system today so we can compare it with dust from 4.5 billion years ago. This will tell us how the galaxy has changed over time. The first stage in the formation of the solar system was the collapse of the cloud into a disk that fed material into a central star. There is speculation that a supernova either caused the collapse or happened at around this time. To help find out if this is true, we will try to find how much radioactive iron was present (atoms of radioactive iron are made in supernovae along with a lot of other stable and unstable atoms). Other radioactive elements were present in the early solar system. Some decayed so rapidly that none of them were left after 100Ma, but we want to use the traces they left behind to figure out the sequence of events that led to the planets and asteroids of today's solar system Eventually sizable bodies formed that, like the Earth, were big enough to separate into iron cores and stony mantles. We want to use martian meteorites to see how this happened on the planet Mars. We can compare this with the similar processes on the Earth that allowed life to form and evolve. We're especially interested how volatile elements that tend to end up in a planet's atmosphere or oceans behaved early in the history of Mars. We're also planning to study meteorites from the Moon so that we can see how long volcanoes continued to pore lava onto its surface and how its surface was broken up by meteorite impacts. All of these projects rely on special scientific instruments and techniques that we have developed. As part of this project we plan to develop a new generation of instruments that will allow us to get information from a few hundred atoms of the rare gas krypton.
Organisations
Publications
Haloda J
(2009)
Petrology, geochemistry, and age of low-Ti mare-basalt meteorite Northeast Africa 003-A: A possible member of the Apollo 15 mare basaltic suite
in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta
Henkel T
(2007)
Interstellar dust laser explorer: a new instrument for elemental and isotopic analysis and imaging of interstellar and interplanetary dust.
in The Review of scientific instruments
Henkel T
(2009)
Improvements in quantification accuracy of inorganic time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometric analysis of silicate materials by using C60 primary ions.
in Rapid communications in mass spectrometry : RCM
Henkel T.
(2009)
MEASURING R-PROCESS ELEMENTS IN INDIVIDUAL PRESOLAR SILICON CARBIDE GRAINS
in METEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE
Joy K. H.
(2009)
Petrography and chronology of lunar meteorite NWA 4472
in GEOCHIMICA ET COSMOCHIMICA ACTA
Joy K. H.
(2007)
The clast inventory of KREEPY lunar meteorite Northwest Africa 4472
in METEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE
King A
(2010)
Determination of relative sensitivity factors during secondary ion sputtering of silicate glasses by Au+, Au2+ and Au3+ ions.
in Rapid communications in mass spectrometry : RCM
King A.
(2009)
A TOF-SIMS STUDY OF PRISTINE PRESOLAR GRAPHITE
in METEORITICS & PLANETARY SCIENCE
Küppers M
(2008)
Triple F-a comet nucleus sample return mission
in Experimental Astronomy
Lyon I
(2010)
Formation of Sim+ and SimCn+ clusters by C60+ sputtering of Si
in Applied Surface Science
Description | Presentations to Interest Groups in the North West (Astronomy Societies, Geology Societies, Science Bars etc) |
Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
Type Of Presentation | Keynote/Invited Speaker |
Geographic Reach | Regional |
Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
Results and Impact | Audiences ranged from 20-100. Specific details relevant to this funding period of our rolling/consolidated grant are... 25th April 2007 Lovell Lecture, Jodrell Bank Meteorites and the Early Solar System. 11th June 2007 West Didsbury Astronomy Society Meteorites and the Early Solar System. 15th April 2008 Macclesfield Astronomy Society Meteorites and the Early Solar System. 10th November 2008 Wolverhampton Astronomy Society Meteorites and the Early Solar System. 16th October 2008 Kopal Lecture, Manchester Astronomical Society Stardust and the Early Solar System. 4th April 2009 Moonwatch, Jodrell Bank. Presentation (delivered twice) - Introduction to The Moon - introducing "hands on" event demonstrating use of petrological microscopes to study moon rocks. 7th April 2009 Bolton Astronomical Society Public Lecture Meteorites and the Early Solar System. 17th May 2009 Bollington Festival Meteorites, Stardust and the Early Solar System. Sold out 126 tickets. 27th May 2009 Mission Possible, One day continuing education summer school, University of Manchester. The level of group engagement in this activity has increased, and we now participate regularly in larger scale events (see return for further funding tranches for details) |
Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | Pre-2006,2006,2007,2008,2009,2010,2011,2012,2013,2014 |