Before and After Solar System Formation: Insights from Micrometeorites
When
Where
Dr. Pierre Haenecour
Postdoctoral Research Associate
Earths in Other Solar Systems (EOS) team, Lunar and Planetary Laboratory
Extraterrestrial micrometeorites are small particles (about 50 µm to 2 mm) that are typically collected from melting Antarctic ice. These micrometeorites represent one of the greatest contemporary mass inputs of extraterrestrial matter to the Earth and may have contributed substantially to Earth’s inventory of volatiles, including water and organics. Yet whether these micrometeorites originate from asteroids or comets remains unclear and is a major obstacle to deducing the distribution of volatiles in our Solar System. In this talk, I will discuss how isotopic anomalies in several elements associated with circumstellar grains (stardust) and organic matter in micrometeorites can be used to untangle the different processes at play during the early stages of our solar system history.
Host: Professor Dante Lauretta