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PI : Monica M. Grady

Title : Relationship between comets, asteroids and meteorites

Abstract

The UK Cosmochemistry Analysis Network (UK CAN) is a government-funded project that was established to build and develop new instrumentation for the analysis of returned extraterrestrial samples. One of our earliest presentations was at the First International Hayabusa Symposium in 2005 (Grady et al., 2008). We continue our interest in the Hayabusa material, and wish to study the material to address one specific question: How is the relationship between comets, asteroids and meteorites obscured by post-formational processing? This is an important question because secondary alteration (on the parent body, and related to cometary or asteroidal evolution) can be obscured by space weathering (through cosmic ray bombardment or impact). We propose a planned programme of analyses that would be co-ordinated throughout the community, in order to make the most efficient use of the material. We have expertise across a wide range of fields, including imagery, spectroscopy, chemical, organic, structural and isotopic analysis. We have access, either directly in the laboratories of Consortium members, or indirectly through national facilities, to state-of-the art instrumentation. Examples of this instrumentation include: a NanoSIMS, which is set up for high precision oxygen isotope analysis of micron-sized samples; a nano-CT scanner for structural analysis of individual grains in 3D; high resolution TEM and STEM for chemical and mineralogical analysis, ToF-SIMS for depth-profiling and Kr and Xe isotope analysis by RIMS. We have access to the Diamond synchrotron, with beamlines available for EXAFS/XANES, FTIR, diffraction.

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