Interplanetary dust particles mineralogy

Fortunately, and perhaps surprisingly, the Universe provides a means to address these important questions. Today we are witnessing as the answers emerge to these age-old questions. We now know that asteroids and comets of the Solar System have preserved a detailed record of the dramatic events that four billion years ago gave birth to our planetary system in only a few million years. Gravity and radiation pressure conspire to deliver almost pristine samples of the early Solar System to Earth in the form of meteorites and interplanetary dust particles. We have also taken this process one step further with the successful return of particles from the coma of comet Wild 2 by NASA s Stardust mission. Detailed chemical and mineralogical analyses of these materials allow for the reconstruction of the history of our planetary system. 

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Greshake A., Hoppe P., and Bischoff A. (1996) Mineralogy, chemistry, and oxygen isotopes of refractory inclusions from stratospheric interplanetary dust particles and micrometeorites. Meteorit. Planet. Sci. 31, 739-748. 

Bradley J. P. (1994a) Nanometer-scale mineralogy and petrography of fine-grained aggregates in anhydrous interplanetary dust particles. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 58, 2123-2134. 

Christoffersen R. and Buseck P. R. (1986) Mineralogy of interplanetary dust particles from the olivine infrared class. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 78, 53-66. 

Flynn G. J. (1994a) Changes in the composition and mineralogy of interplanetary dust particles be terrestrial encounters. In Analysis of Interplanetary Dust, AIP Conf. Proc. 310 (eds. M. E. Zolensky, T. L. Wilson, E. J. M. Rietmeiier, and G. J. Flynn). Am. Inst. Phys., New York, pp. 127-143. 

Rietmeijer F. J. M. (1989) Ultrafine-grained mineralogy and matrix chemistry of olivine-rich chondritic interplanetary dust particles. Proc. 19th Lunar Planet. Set Conf. 513-521. 

Mackinnon, I.D.R. Rietmeijer, F.J.M. Mineralogy of chondritic interplanetary dust particles. Revs. Geophys. 1987, 25, 1527-1553. 

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