Meteoritics

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Not to be confused with Meteorology.
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Meteoritics

meteors, meteorites, and meteoroids.[note 2][2][3] It is closely connected to cosmochemistry, mineralogy and geochemistry. A specialist who studies meteoritics is known as a meteoriticist.[4]

Scientific research in meteoritics includes the

history of the Solar System, how it formed and evolved, and the process of planet formation
.

History of investigation

Before the documentation of L'Aigle it was generally believed that meteorites were a type of superstition and those who claimed to see them fall from space were lying.

In 1960 John Reynolds discovered that some meteorites have an excess of 129Xe, a result of the presence of 129I in the solar nebula.[5]

Methods of investigation

Mineralogy

The presence or absence of certain minerals is indicative of physical and chemical processes. Impacts on the parent body are recorded by impact-breccias and high-pressure mineral phases (e.g. coesite, akimotoite, majorite, ringwoodite, stishovite, wadsleyite).[6][7][8] Water bearing minerals, and samples of liquid water (e.g., Zag, Monahans) are an indicator for hydrothermal activity on the parent body (e.g. clay minerals).[9]

Radiometric dating

Radiometric methods can be used to date different stages of the history of a meteorite. Condensation from the

solar nebula is recorded by calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions and chondrules. These can be dated by using radionuclides that were present in the solar nebula (e.g. 26Al/26Mg, 53Mn/53Cr, U/Pb, 129I/129Xe). After the condensed material accretes to planetesimals of sufficient size melting and differentiation take place. These processes can be dated with the U/Pb, 87Rb/87Sr,[10]
3H/3He method, 22Na/21Ne, 81Kr/83Kr.[15][16] After impact on earth (or any other planet with sufficient cosmic ray shielding) cosmogenic radionuclides decay and can be used to date the time since the meteorite fell. Methods to date this terrestrial exposure are 36Cl, 14C, 81Kr.[17]

See also

Notes & references

Notes

  1. ^ Originally rarely called astrolithology.[1]
  2. meteor (a shooting star, caused by an incoming object burning up in the Earth's atmosphere) or a meteoroid
    (a small body orbiting within the Solar System).

    When the Journal of the Meteoritical Society and the Institute of Meteoritics of the University of New Mexico first appeared in 1953, it quoted the then accepted definition of meteoritics as the science of meteorites and meteors, but it went on to explain that meteorites at the time included what are now called meteoroids: Meteoritics may be defined independently of meteorites and meteors, however, as that branch of astronomy that is concerned with the study of the solid matter that comes to the Earth from space; of the solid bodies of subplanetary mass that lie beyond the Earth; and of the phenomena that are associated with such matter or such bodies.    [1]

    The term meteoroid was not defined until 1961 by the International Astronomical Union, and the Minor Planet Center still doesn't use the term.

References

  1. ^
    doi:10.1111/j.1945-5100.1953.tb01299.x
    .
  2. ^ meteoritics on Lexico.com
  3. ^ "meteoritics, n.". OED Online. Oxford University Press. 19 December 2012.
  4. ^ "meteoriticist, n.". OED Online. Oxford University Press. 19 December 2012.
  5. doi:10.1103/PhysRevLett.4.351
    .
  6. ^ Coleman, Leslie C. (1977). "Ringwoodite and majorite in the Catherwood meteorite". Canadian Mineralogist. 15: 97–101. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  7. PMID 21187434
    .
  8. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.07.048
    .
  9. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(87)90178-5
    .
  10. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(78)90139-5
    .
  11. doi:10.1016/j.epsl.2008.06.010
    .
  12. S2CID 96376008
    .
  13. ^ "Re-Os ages of group IIA, IIIA, IVA, and IVB iron from meteorites". Archived from the original on 13 April 2016. Retrieved 19 December 2012.
  14. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(90)90241-C
    .
  15. doi:10.1016/0016-7037(88)90233-5
    .
  16. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(80)90126-0
    .
  17. doi:10.1016/0012-821X(89)90029-0
    .

Further reading
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