The Ksar Ghilane 002 shergottite-The 100th registered Martian meteorite fragment

We report on the discovery of a new shergottite from Tunisia, Ksar Ghilane (KG) 002. This single stone, weighing 538 g, is a coarse-grained basaltic shergottite, mainly composed of maskelynitized plagioclase (approximately 52 vol%) and pyroxene (approximately 37 vol%). It also contains Fe-rich olivine (approximately 4.5 vol%), large Ca-phosphates, including both merrillites and Cl-apatites (approximately 3.4 vol%), minor amounts of silica or SiO_2-normative K-rich glass, pyrrhotite, Ti-magnetite, ilmenite, and accessory baddeleyite. The largest crystals of pyroxene and plagioclase reach sizes of approximately 4 to 5 mm. Pyroxenes (Fs_(26–96)En_(5–50)Wo_(2–41)). They typically range from cores of about Fs_(29)En_(41)Wo_(30) to rims of about Fs_(68)En_(14)Wo_(17). Maskelynite is Ab_(41–49)An_(39–58)Or_(1–7) in composition, but some can be as anorthitic as An_(93). Olivine (Fa_(91–96)) occurs mainly within symplectitic intergrowths, in paragenesis with ilmenite, or at neighboring areas of symplectites. KG 002 is heavily shocked (S5) as indicated by mosaic extinction of pyroxenes, maskelynitized plagioclase, the occurrence of localized shock melt glass pockets, and low radiogenic He concentration. Oxygen isotopes confirm that it is a normal member of the SNC suite. KG 002 is slightly depleted in LREE and shows a positive Eu anomaly, providing evidence for complex magma genesis and mantle processes on Mars. Noble gases with a composition thought to be characteristic for Martian interior is a dominant component. Measurements of ^(10)Be, ^(26)Al, and ^(53)Mn and comparison with Monte Carlo calculations of production rates indicate that KG 002 has been exposed to cosmic rays most likely as a single meteoroid body of 35–65 cm radius. KG 002 strongly resembles Los Angeles and NWA 2800 basaltic shergottites in element composition, petrography, and mineral chemistry, suggesting a possible launch-pairing. The similar CRE ages of KG 002 and Los Angeles may suggest an ejection event at approximately 3.0 Ma

Measurement of the stellar Ni 58 (n,γ) Ni 59 cross section with accelerator mass spectrometry

The Ni58(n,γ)Ni59 cross section was measured with a combination of the activation technique and accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). The neutron activations were performed at the Karlsruhe 3.7 MV Van de Graaff accelerator using the quasistellar neutron spectrum at kT=25 keV produced by the Li7(p,n)Be7 reaction. The subsequent AMS measurements were carried out at the 14 MV tandem accelerator of the Maier-Leibnitz Laboratory in Garching using the gas-filled analyzing magnet system (GAMS). Three individual samples were measured, yielding a Maxwellian-averaged cross section at kT=30 keV of (σ)30keV = 30.4 (23)syst(9)stat mbarn. This value is slightly lower than two recently published measurements using the time-of-flight (TOF) method, but agrees within the uncertainties. Our new results also resolve the large discrepancy between older TOF measurements and our previous value

Accretion rate of extraterrestrial 41Ca in Antarctic snow samples

Interplanetary Dust Particles (IDPs) are small grains, generally less than a few hundred micrometers in size. Their main source is the Asteroid Belt, located at 3 AU from the Sun, between Mars and Jupiter. During their flight from the Asteroid Belt to the Earth they are irradiated by galactic and solar cosmic rays (GCR and SCR), thus radionuclides are formed, like 41Ca and 53Mn. Therefore, 41Ca (T1/2 = 1.03 × 105 yr) can be used as a key tracer to determine the accretion rate of IDPs onto the Earth because there are no significant terrestrial sources for this radionuclide. The first step of this study consisted to calculate the production rate of 41Ca in IDPs accreted by the Earth during their travel from the Asteroid Belt. This production rate, used in accordance with the 41Ca/40Ca ratios that will be measured in snow samples from the Antarctica will be used to calculate the amount of extraterrestrial material accreted by the Earth per year. There challenges for this project are, at first, the much longer time for the flight needed by the IDPs to travel from the Asteroid Belt to the Earth in comparison with the 41Ca half-life yields an early saturation for the 41Ca/40Ca ratio, and second, the importance of selecting the correct sampling site to avoid a high influx of natural 40Ca, preventing dilution of the 41Ca/40Ca ratio, the quantity measured by AMS.Fil: Gómez Guzmán, J. M.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Bishop, S.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Faestermann, T.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Famulok, N.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Fimiani, Leticia. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Hain, K.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Jahn, S.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Korschinek, G.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Ludwig, P.. Technische Universitat München; AlemaniaFil: Rodrigues Ferreira Maltez, Dario Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; Argentin

Assessment of 53Mn deposition on Earth via accelerator mass spectrometry

The 53Mn flux onto Earth is a quantity relevant for different extraterrestrial and astrophysical questions. It is a proxy for related fluxes, such as supernova-produced material or interplanetary dust particles. In this work, we performed a first attempt to assess the 53Mn flux by measuring the 53Mn/10Be isotopic ratio in a 1400 L sample of molten Antarctic snow by AMS (Accelerator Mass Spectrometry). Using the 10Be production rate in the atmosphere, an upper limit of 5.5 × 103 atoms cm−2 yr−1 was estimated for the deposition of extraterrestrial 53Mn. This result is compatible with one of the two discrepant values existing in the literature.Fil: Rodrigues Ferreira Maltez, Dario Pablo. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Departamento de Física; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Oficina de Coordinación Administrativa Ciudad Universitaria. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires. Universidad de Buenos Aires. Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales. Instituto de Física de Buenos Aires; ArgentinaFil: Negri, Agustín E.. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigación en Ingeniería Ambiental; ArgentinaFil: Balpardo, Christian Guillermo. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Centro Atómico Ezeiza; ArgentinaFil: Arazi, Andres. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Faestermann, Thomas. Technische Universität München; AlemaniaFil: Fernandez Niello, Jorge Oscar. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentina. Universidad Nacional de San Martín. Instituto de Investigación en Ingeniería Ambiental; ArgentinaFil: Fimiani, Leticia. Technische Universität München; AlemaniaFil: Gómez Guzmán, José Manuel. Technische Universität München; AlemaniaFil: Hain, Karin. Technische Universität München; AlemaniaFil: Korschinek, Gunther. Technische Universität München; AlemaniaFil: Ludwig, Peter. Technische Universität München; AlemaniaFil: Marti, Guillermo V.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica; Argentin

Be 9 + Sn 120 scattering at near-barrier energies within a four-body model

Cross sections for elastic and inelastic scattering of the weakly bound Be9 nucleus on a Sn120 target have been measured at seven bombarding energies around and above the Coulomb barrier. The elastic angular distributions are analyzed with a four-body continuum-discretized coupled-channels (CDCC) calculation, which considers Be9 as a three-body projectile (α+α+n). An optical model analysis using the São Paulo potential is also shown for comparison. The CDCC analysis shows that the coupling to the continuum part of the spectrum is important for the agreement with experimental data even at energies around the Coulomb barrier, suggesting that breakup is an important process at low energies. At the highest incident energies, two inelastic peaks are observed at 1.19(5) and 2.41(5) MeV. Coupled-channels (CC) calculations using a rotational model confirm that the first inelastic peak corresponds to the excitation of the 21+ state in Sn120, while the second one likely corresponds to the excitation of the 31- state.Fil: Arazi, Andres. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Casal, J.. European Centre for Theoretical Studies in Nuclear Physics and Related Areas; Italia. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Rodríguez Gallardo, M.. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Arias, J. M.. Universidad de Sevilla; EspañaFil: Lichtenthäler Filho, R.. Universidade de Sao Paulo; BrasilFil: Abriola, Daniel Hugo. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Capurro, Oscar Ángel. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Cardona, Maria Angelica. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Carnelli, Patricio Francisco Florencio. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: De Barbará, E.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Fernandez Niello, Jorge Oscar. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Figueira, Juan Manuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Fimiani, Leticia. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Hojman, Daniel Leonardo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentina. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Martí, Guillermo Virginio. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Martínez Heimman, D.. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; ArgentinaFil: Pacheco, Alberto Jorge. Comisión Nacional de Energía Atómica. Gerencia del Área de Investigación y Aplicaciones No Nucleares. Gerencia Física (Centro Atómico Constituyentes). Proyecto Tandar; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; Argentin