Preliminary Examination of Organics Returned from Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft

Details Preliminary Examination of Organics Returned from Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft Preliminary Examination of Organics Returned from Comet Wild 2 by the Stardust Spacecraft

Dec 2006

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2006agufm.p52b..04s&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2006, abstract #P52B-04

Physics

2129 Interplanetary Dust, 5215 Origin Of Life, 6015 Dust, 6045 Physics And Chemistry Of Materials, 6210 Comets (6023)

Scientific paper

Introduction - The STARDUST Mission collected samples from comet 81P/Wild 2 on Jan 2, 2004. The Sample Return Capsule (SRC) returned to Earth and was recovered on Jan 15, 2006. After recovery, a six month Preliminary Examination (PE) was begun using a portion of the returned samples. Studies of the organic materials in the samples were made by the Organics PE Team - a group of over 45 scientists from laboratories around the world. Analytical Techniques - Organics in the samples were studied by a variety of analytical techniques that utilized individual particles, and aerogel and Al foil target materials for multiple, correlated measurements. Characterization of organic matter included spatial determination of C and heteroatom elemental abundances (STXM), functional group identification (micro-FTIR/Raman, C,N,O-XANES), and specific molecular identification of certain classes of organic molecules (HPLC-LIF, L2MS, TOF-SIMS). Analyses were also made of returned spacecraft components and environmental samples collected in the vicinity of the recovered SRC to help assess contamination issues. Contamination Control and Assessment - The Organic PET made efforts to establish the abundance and identity of any contaminants associated with the spacecraft, air and soil samples from the landing site, vapors from the heatshield, and the original aerogel tiles. These studies indicate that while some organic contaminants were present, cometary materials could be recognized above contamination backgrounds. Cometary Organics - The distribution of organics (abundance, functionality, and relative elemental abundances of C,N,O) were found to be heterogeneous both within and between particles, i.e. they represent an unequilibrated reservoir of materials, suggesting they experienced little or no parent body processing after incorporation into the comet. Some of organic materials look similar, but not identical, to those seen in IDPs, while a new class of aromatic-poor, highly labile extraterrestrial organic material, not seen in meteoritic materials, is also present. The organics are rich in O and N compared to meteoritic organics. Some of the organics appear to have an interstellar heritage, as evidenced by enrichments in D and 15N.

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