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Cosmic Dust: Laboratory analyses of extremely
small particles
Stadermann F. J. (1991). 22nd Lunar and Planetary Science
conference (Press Abstracts), Lunar and Planetary Institute,
p 63-65.
ABSTRACT
A discussion of cosmic dust, its classification, the
usefulness of its analysis, and problems associated with its
analysis is presented. All measurements on stratospheric
dust particles presented here were made with secondary ion
mass spectrometry (SIMS). The SIMS technique turns out to be
an extremely useful tool in the study of very small
particles and made a number of firsts possible. The isotopic
composition of cosmic dust particles were measured for the
first time. It was also the first time that it was possible
to measure the abundances of the rare earth elements in
these particles. However, the most important advance this
work represents is that both trace elemental and isotopic
abundances were successfully measured in the same particles.
Thus, for the first time, it is possible to compare isotopic
and trace element abundance data of the same cosmic dust
particles.
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