nai

Project Progress

This report covers the second full year of operation of the ims 1280. During this year, we have carried out several projects to measure oxygen isotopes in primitive solar system bodies (Krot et al., 2007; Connolly et al., 2008; Krot et al., 2008a; Makide et al., 2008). Examples of this work are shown in Figures 1 and 2. We also carried out several studies of the distribution of short-lived radionuclides such as 26Al and 60Fe to investigate the chronology of the early solar system (Huss et al., 2007; Krot et al., 2008a; Nagashima et al., 2008; Makide et al., 2008). Deter mining precise isochrons, such as that shown in Figure 3, help to delineate the chronology of the early solar system. We have begun a study of the H abundance in the solar wind collectors returned by the Genesis Mission. And we have been working on understanding the nature and origin of carbon-rich lithic clasts in the Ischeyevo meteorite (see report on Raman microscope). This latter study is the first one in which we used the ability of the ims 1280 to produce isotope ratio maps (Figure 4). With maps like Figure 4, we can investigate the individual phases that contain anomalous material and ascertain their origin.

The first peer reviewed paper containing data from the new ion probe appeared during the last 12 months (Krot et al., 2008b).We also continue to make progress on installing our new solid-state imaging detector called SCAPS. With this new detector, images like Figure 4 can become truly quantitative. Figure 5 shows the housing of the new detector on the text bench. The electronics are nearing completion and we look forward to installing the new detector on the ion probe this fall.