Extraterrestrial materials

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lunar sample 15415, also known as the "Genesis Rock"

Extraterrestrial material refers to natural objects now on Earth that originated in outer space. Such materials include

sample return missions from the Moon, asteroids and comets, as well as solar wind
particles.

Extraterrestrial materials are of value to science as they preserve the primitive composition of the

gas and dust from which the Sun and the Solar System formed
.

Categories

Extraterrestrial material for study on earth can be classified into a few broad categories, namely:

  1. Meteorites
    too large to vaporize on atmospheric entry but small enough to leave fragments lying on the ground, among which are included likely specimens from the asteroid and Kuiper belts as well as from the moon and from Mars.
  2. Moon rocks brought to Earth by robotic and crewed lunar missions.
  3. Cosmic dust collected on Earth, in the Earth's stratosphere, and in low Earth orbit which likely include particles from the present day interplanetary dust cloud, as well as from comets.
  4. Specimens collected by sample-return missions from comets, asteroids, solar wind, which include "stardust particles" from the present-day interstellar medium.
  5. Presolar grains (extracted from meteorites and interplanetary dust particles) that predate the formation of the Solar System. These are the most pristine and valuable samples.

Collected on Earth

Tanpopo
missions.

Examples of extraterrestrial material collected on Earth include

Tanpopo mission that collected dust from low Earth orbit.[6]
In 2019, researchers found interstellar dust in Antarctica which they relate to the Local Interstellar Cloud. The detection of interstellar dust in Antarctica was done by the measurement of the radionuclides Fe-60 and Mn-53 by highly sensitive Accelerator mass spectrometry, where Fe-60 is the clear signature for a recent-supernova origin.[7]

Sample-return missions

Main article: Sample-return mission

To date, samples of

Wild 2 (Genesis mission) and the asteroid Itokawa (Hayabusa mission) have each been visited by robotic spacecraft that returned samples to Earth, and samples of the solar wind were also returned by the robotic Genesis mission.[8][9]

Current sample-return missions are OSIRIS-REx to asteroid Bennu,[10][11] and Hayabusa2 to asteroid Ryugu.[12] Several sample-return mission are planned for the Moon, Mars, and Mars' moons (see: Sample-return mission#List of missions).

Material obtained from sample-return missions are considered pristine and uncontaminated, and their

biohazardous.[17][18]

Lines of study

Samples analyzed on Earth can be matched against findings of remote sensing, for more insight into the processes that formed the Solar System.

Elemental and isotopic abundances

Present day

formation of planets, and the evolution of their surfaces.[20]

Isotopic abundances provide important clues to the origin, transformation and geologic age of the material being analyzed.[22]

Extraterrestrial materials also carry information on a wide range of nuclear processes. These include for example: (i) the decay of now-extinct

solar nebula,[23] and (ii) the products of stellar and explosive nucleosynthesis found in almost undiluted form in presolar grains.[24] The latter are providing astronomers with information on exotic environments from the early Milky Way
galaxy.

Noble gases are particularly useful because they avoid chemical reactions, secondly because many of them have more than one isotope on which to carry the signature of nuclear processes, and because they are relatively easy to extract from solid materials by simple heating. As a result, they play a pivotal role in the study of extraterrestrial materials.[25]

Nuclear spallation effects

Particles subject to bombardment by sufficiently energetic particles, like those found in

cosmic rays, also experience the transmutation of atoms of one kind into another. These spallation effects can alter the trace element isotopic composition of specimens in ways which allow researchers to deduct the nature of their exposure in space.[citation needed
]

These techniques have been used, for example, to look for (and determine the date of) events in the pre-Earth history of a meteorite's parent body (like a major collision) that drastically altered the space exposure of the material in that meteorite. For example, the Murchison meteorite landed in Australia in 1967, but its parent body apparently underwent a collision event about 800,000 years ago[26] which broke it into meter-sized pieces.

Astrobiology

Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field concerned with the origins, early evolution, distribution, and future of life in the universe. It involves investigations on the presence of the organic compounds on comets, asteroids, Mars or the moons of the gas giants. Several sample-return missions to asteroids and comets are currently in the works with a key interest in astrobiology. More samples from asteroids, comets and moons could help determine whether life formed in other astronomical bodies, and if it could have been carried to Earth by meteorites or comets — a process termed panspermia.[27][28][29]

The abundant organic compounds in primitive meteorites and interplanetary dust particles are thought to originate largely in the interstellar medium. However, this material may have been modified in the protoplanetary disk and has been modified to varying extents in the asteroidal parent bodies.[30]

stars and radiation.[31][32][33] These compounds, in the presence of water and other habitable factors, are thought to have produced and spontaneously assembled the building blocks of life.[34][35]

Origin of water on Earth

Main article: Origin of water on Earth

The origin of water on Earth is the subject of a significant body of research in the fields of planetary science, astronomy, and astrobiology. Isotopic ratios provide a unique "chemical fingerprint" that is used to compare Earth's water with reservoirs elsewhere in the Solar System. One such isotopic ratio, that of deuterium to hydrogen (D/H), is particularly useful in the search for the origin of water on Earth. However, when and how that water was delivered to Earth is the subject of ongoing research.[36][37]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Meteoritical Bulletin Database — Lunar Meteorite search results". Meteoritical Bulletin Database. The Meteoritical Society. 15 August 2017. Retrieved 17 August 2017.
  2. ^ Meteoritical Bulletin Database
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  5. doi:10.1016/S0019-1035(03)00149-0
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  6. ^ Tanpopo Experiment for Astrobiology Exposure and Micrometeoroid Capture Onboard the ISS-JEM Exposed Facility. (PDF) H. Yano, A. Yamagishi, H. Hashimoto1, S. Yokobori, K. Kobayashi, H. Yabuta, H. Mita, M. Tabata H., Kawai, M. Higashide, K. Okudaira, S. Sasaki, E. Imai, Y. Kawaguchi, Y. Uchibori11, S. Kodaira and the Tanpopo Project Team. 45th Lunar and Planetary Science Conference (2014).
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  8. ^ Solar Wind Conditions and Composition During the Genesis Mission as Measured by in situ Spacecraft. Daniel B. Reisenfeld, Roger C. Wiens, Bruce L. Barraclough, John T. Steinberg, Marcia Neugebauer, Jim Raines, Thomas H. Zurbuchen. Space Science Reviews June 2013, Volume 175, Issue 1, pp. 125–164.
  9. ^ "Genesis Science Team". NASA.
  10. ^ Chang, Kenneth (December 3, 2018). "NASA's Osiris-Rex Arrives at Asteroid Bennu After a Two-Year Journey". The New York Times. Retrieved December 3, 2018.
  11. ^ Morten, Eric (31 December 2018). "NASA's OSIRIS-REx Spacecraft Enters Close Orbit Around Bennu, Breaking Record". NASA. Retrieved 1 January 2019.
  12. ^ Clark, Stephen (28 June 2018). "Japanese spacecraft reaches asteroid after three-and-a-half-year journey". Spaceflight Now. Retrieved 2 July 2018.
  13. ^ Mars Sample Return Receiving Facility - A Draft Test Protocol for Detecting Possible Biohazards in Martian Samples Returned to Earth (PDF) (Report). 2002. A Sample Return Facility will require combining technologies used for constructing maximum containment laboratories (e.g. Biosafety level 4 labs) with cleanroom technologies which will be needed to protect the Mars samples from Earth contamination.
  14. ^ A Draft Test Protocol for Detecting Possible Biohazards in Martian Samples Returned to Earth Archived 2006-02-22 at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ Cleanroom Robotics -Appropriate Technology for a Sample Receiving Facility. 2005.
  16. ^ "2010 Mars Sample Return Orbiter decadal survey" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-05-08. Retrieved 2019-07-08.
  17. ^ Full text of the Outer Space Treaty Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies Archived 2013-07-08 at the Wayback Machine - See Article IX
  18. ^ Centre National d’Etudes Spatiales (CNES) (2008). "Planetary protection treaties and recommendations". Archived from the original on 2014-08-20. Retrieved 2012-09-11.
  19. doi:10.1103/RevModPhys.28.53
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  21. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(82)90208-3
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  22. doi:10.1146/annurev.ns.28.120178.002441
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  23. S2CID 118638578
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  24. doi:10.1146/annurev.earth.26.1.147
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  25. doi:10.1016/j.gca.2006.06.518
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  26. ^ M. W. Caffee, J. N. Goswami, C. M. Hohenberg, K. Marti and R. C. Reedy (1988) in Meteorites and the early solar system (ed. J. F. Kerridge and M. S. Matthews, U Ariz. Press, Tucson AZ) 205-245.
  27. ^ Rampelotto, P.H. (2010). "Panspermia: A Promising Field Of Research" (PDF). Astrobiology Science Conference. Retrieved 3 December 2014.
  28. ^ Shostak, Seth (26 October 2018). "Comets and asteroids may be spreading life across the galaxy - Are germs from outer space the source of life on Earth?". NBC News. Retrieved 31 October 2018.
  29. S2CID 119084109
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  30. ^ [Project 2. Extraterrestrial Materials: Origin and Evolution of Organic Matter and Water in the Solar System.] NASA Astrobiology Institute, 2007 Annual Report.
  31. ^ Chow, Denise (26 October 2011). "Discovery: Cosmic Dust Contains Organic Matter from Stars". Space.com. Retrieved 2011-10-26.
  32. ^ ScienceDaily Staff (26 October 2011). "Astronomers Discover Complex Organic Matter Exists Throughout the Universe". ScienceDaily. Retrieved 2011-10-27.
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  34. ^ "About Astrobiology". NASA Astrobiology Institute. NASA. 21 January 2008. Archived from the original on 11 October 2008. Retrieved 20 October 2008.
  35. ^ Kaufman, Marc. "A History of Astrobiology". NASA. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
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  37. S2CID 92988014
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External links
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