[meteorite-list] $1.5 Million Grant Gives UH Researchers Tools to Analyze Cosmic Dust

[Ron Baalke]

http://starbulletin.com/2005/06/09/news/story8.html  

Lab to write solar history
      
A $1.5 million grant gives UH researchers
the tools to analyze bits of cosmic dust

By Helen Altonn (haltonn at starbulletin.com)
Honolulu Star Bulletin
June 9, 2005

The University of Hawaii is developing one of the world's most advanced
laboratories to study the origin of the solar system.

"The university is trying to build the premier center in the world for
studies of primitive materials, cosmic dust, meteorites and samples from
other planets," said Peter Mouginis-Mark, acting director of the Hawaii
Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.

The UH Foundation received $1.5 million from the W.M. Keck Foundation to
create the new lab, which uses an array of sciences called
cosmochemistry to analyze bits of meteorites, planets and comet dust. UH
matched it with $1 million, and NASA approved $1.4 million to acquire a
state-of-the-art ion microprobe for the laboratory, Mouginis-Mark said.

The instrument is being built in France, he said. "It's huge. I'm not
even sure how we're going to get it into the (Pacific Ocean Science and
Technology ) building, but we'll find a way."

Klaus Keil, interim dean of the School of Ocean Earth Sciences and
Technology, said the UH research group will "really make a quantum leap
forward in the field of cosmochemistry."

Joining the group are two world experts in ion microprobe analysis and
cosmochemistry: Gary Huss, formerly of the University of Arizona, and
Kazu Nagashima, formerly of the Tokyo Institute of Technology.

Huss said, "What we're going to do is look at samples from the earliest
solar system, which are mostly meteorites but will include comet dust
from the Stardust Mission to the comet, and samples from the moon and
potentially samples from Mars, and we will investigate how they formed."

Meteorites and comets probably date from the earliest times of the solar
system, he said, "so when we look at those, we see the very earliest
building blocks of the solar system, and we have the ability to
investigate processes that occurred in the early solar system."

The main advantage of the ion probe is they can measure samples without
having to dissolve or destroy them, he said. "We can measure spots on
polished samples only a few microns across.

"We investigate the materials, processes and timing of events in the
early solar system to try to piece together the story of how the solar
system formed."

Huss said some of the raw materials for the early solar system are
"surviving grains that formed around other stars at the end of their
lives. The elements heavier than hydrogen and helium were produced by
nuclear processes in stars, and they are dispersed through the galaxy
when a star either ejects its envelope or explodes at the end of its life."

The scientists can investigate the timing of events in the early solar
system with the ion probe, he said, adding, "We now know that the
formation of bodies the size of the current asteroids took only a few
million years after the solar system began and that the earth formed
shortly thereafter."

UH-Manoa Chancellor Peter Englert said the Keck Foundation award
"highlights both the quality and range of research expertise at the
university and is a testament to our growing reputation within the
international scientific community."

The Institute of Geophysics and Planetology has a renowned group of
scientists studying meteorites and data from Mars and other planets.

Their program has been involved with present and planned spacecraft
missions that will return samples, such as Genesis, Stardust and Mars
sample return programs.

The program also provides critical information for interpretation of
remote sensing data and addresses questions posed by materials obtained
from deep interiors of stars or planets.