Stardust interstellar preliminary examination XI: Identification and elemental analysis of impact craters on Al foils from the Stardust Interstellar Dust Collector

Rhonda M. Stroud, Carlton Allen, Asna Ansari, David Anderson, Saŝa Bajt, Nabil Bassim, Ron S. Bastien, Hans A. Bechtel, Janet Borg, Frank E. Brenker, John Bridges, Donald E. Brownlee, Mark Burchell, Manfred Burghammer, Anna L. Butterworth, Hitesh Changela, Peter Cloetens, Andrew M. Davis, Ryan Doll, Christine FlossGeorge Flynn, David R. Frank, Zack Gainsforth, Eberhard Grün, Philipp R. Heck, Jon K. Hillier, Peter Hoppe, Joachim Huth, Brit Hvide, Anton Kearsley, Ashley J. King, Paul Kotula, Barry Lai, Jan Leitner, Laurence Lemelle, Hugues Leroux, Ariel Leonard, Robert Lettieri, William Marchant, Larry R. Nittler, Ryan Ogliore, Wei Jia Ong, Frank Postberg, Mark C. Price, Scott A. Sandford, Juan Angel Sans Tresseras, Sylvia Schmitz, Tom Schoonjans, Kate Schreiber, Geert Silversmit, Alexandre S. Simionovici, Vicente A. Solé, Ralf Srama, Thomas Stephan, Veerle J. Sterken, Julien Stodolna, Steven Sutton, Mario Trieloff, Peter Tsou, Akira Tsuchiyama, Tolek Tyliszczak, Bart Vekemans, Laszlo Vincze, Andrew J. Westphal, Joshua Von Korff, Daniel Zevin, Michael E. Zolensky

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

17 Scopus citations

Abstract

The Stardust Interstellar Preliminary Examination team analyzed thirteen Al foils from the NASA Stardust interstellar collector tray in order to locate candidate interstellar dust (ISD) grain impacts. Scanning electron microscope (SEM) images reveal that the foils possess abundant impact crater and crater-like features. Elemental analyses of the crater features, with Auger electron spectroscopy, SEM-based energy dispersive X-ray (EDX) spectroscopy, and scanning transmission electron microscope-based EDX spectroscopy, demonstrate that the majority are either the result of impacting debris fragments from the spacecraft solar panels, or intrinsic defects in the foil. The elemental analyses also reveal that four craters contain residues of a definite extraterrestrial origin, either as interplanetary dust particles or ISD particles. These four craters are designated level 2 interstellar candidates, based on the crater shapes indicative of hypervelocity impacts and the residue compositions inconsistent with spacecraft debris.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)1698-1719
Number of pages22
JournalMeteoritics and Planetary Science
Volume49
Issue number9
DOIs
StatePublished - 2014

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