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Transmission Electron Microscopy Studies of Natural Nanomaterials from the Solar System

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2020

Z. R. Dai ,
J. P. Bradley ,
T. P. Snow  and
Z. L Wang
Z. R. Dai
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332-0245
J. P. Bradley
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332-0245
T. P. Snow
Affiliation:
Center for Astrophysics and Space Astronomy, University of Colorado, BoulderCO80309-0389
Z. L Wang
Affiliation:
School of Materials Science and Engineering, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, GA30332-0245
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Extract

It is widely appreciated that the study of (man-made) nanomaterials is a new frontier in materials science, but it is not well appreciated that (natural) nanomaterials represent a new frontier in meteoritics and planetary science [1]. During the next decade the nanogram to microgram quantities of extraterrestrial materials will be returned to Earth from a variety of solar system bodies including comets [2]. Studies of cometary interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) collected in the stratosphere, as well as mass spectrometry data from grains analyzed in-situ at comet Halley, suggest that the returned comet samples will be heterogeneous on a scale of nanometers [3, 4]. (A single 5-10μm diameter IDP may contain >106 individual grains and many different minerals (metal, carbonaceous phases, silicates, sulfides, etc.)). More recent observations of dust around stars, in interplanetary space, and at comet Hale-Bopp indicate that the predominant astronomical grain size is in the nanometer to submicrometer size range [5,6].

Type
Ceramics & Minerals
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 6 , Issue S2: Proceedings: Microscopy & Microanalysis 2000, Microscopy Society of America 58th Annual Meeting, Microbeam Analysis Society 34th Annual Meeting, Microscopical Society of Canada/Societe de Microscopie de Canada 27th Annual Meeting, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania August 13-17, 2000 , August 2000 , pp. 412 - 413
Copyright
Copyright © Microscopy Society of America

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References

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