Meteoritics & Planetary Science—More Cosmochemical Details of Interstellar Dust from the Stardust Mission

The September 2014 issue of the Meteoritics & Planetary Science journal (volume 49, issue 9) contains results of the analyses of interstellar dust particles collected in the aerogel and aluminum foil of NASA's Stardust mission.

A subscription is needed to access the 12 articles online, nonetheless the M&PS Table of Contents and abstracts are available to everyone. Here are the titles available:

Final reports of the Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination I: Identification of tracks in aerogel Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination II: Curating the interstellar dust collector, picokeystones, and sources of impact tracks Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination III: Infrared spectroscopic analysis of interstellar dust candidates Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination IV: Scanning transmission X-ray microscopy analyses of impact features in the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination V: XRF analyses of interstellar dust candidates at ESRF ID13

Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination VI: Quantitative elemental analysis by synchrotron X-ray fluorescence nanoimaging of eight impact features in aerogel Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination VII: Synchrotron X-ray fluorescence analysis of six Stardust interstellar candidates measured with the Advanced Photon Source 2-ID-D microprobe Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination VIII: Identification of crystalline material in two interstellar candidates Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination IX: High-speed interstellar dust analog capture in Stardust flight-spare aerogel Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination X: Impact speeds and directions of interstellar grains on the Stardust dust collector Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination XI: Identification and elemental analysis of impact craters on Al foils from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector

Meteoritics & Planetary Science is an international monthly journal published by John Wiley & Sons on behalf of the Meteoritical Society, which is a non-profit scholarly organization founded in 1933 to promote the study of extraterrestrial materials, including meteorites and space mission returned samples, and their history. The membership of the society boasts 950 scientists and amateur enthusiasts from over 33 countries who are interested in a wide range of planetary science. Members' interests include meteorites, cosmic dust, asteroids and comets, natural satellites, planets, impacts, and the origins of the Solar System. For more information, visit www.meteoriticalsociety.org.

 (pdf version)

See also:
·   Westphal, A. J. and 66+ others (2014) Evidence for Interstellar Origin of Seven Dust Particles Collected by the Stardust Spacecraft, Science, v. 345, p.786-791, doi:101126/science.12. [ abstract ]  and  [ related CosmoSparks Report ]
·   Stardust@home citizen science project.

Written by Linda M. V. Martel, Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, for PSRD.