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The Search for Interstellar Components in Interplanetary Dust Particles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2018

John Bradley
Affiliation:
MVA Inc., 5500/200 Oakbrook Parkway, Norcross, GA 30093, USA
Trevor Ireland
Affiliation:
Research School of Earth Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

Abstract

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Amorphous silicate grains known as GEMS have been found in chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) from comets. GEMS are composed of nanometer-sized FeNi metal and Fe-rich sulfide crystals embedded in silicate glass. The properties of GEMS appear to have been shaped primarily by exposure to ionizing radiation and, since the irradiation occurred prior to accretion of the cometary IDPs, GEMS may have formed either in the solar nebula or presolar interstellar environments. The sizes, shapes, structures, and compositions of GEMS correspond to those of interstellar “amorphous silicate” grains. Nanometer-sized superparamagnetic metal inclusions dispersed throughout GEMS provide a logical explanation for alignment of interstellar silicate grains in the galactic magnetic field. Irrespective of their origins, GEMS are an important class of submicrometersized chondritic objects. If they were formed in the solar nebula, then they are among the oldest known solar nebula solids. If they are presolar, then they are probably examples of the “amorphous silicate” grains which are ubiquitous throughout the interstellar medium.

Type
VIII. Chemistry of the Interplanetary Dust
Copyright
Copyright © Astronomical Society of the Pacific 1996

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