Mineralogy and Petrology of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Nucleus Samples

The bulk of the comet 81P/Wild 2 (hereafter Wild 2) samples returned to Earth by the Stardust spacecraft appear to be weakly constructed mixtures of nanometer-scale grains, with occasional much larger (over 1 micrometer) ferromagnesian silicates, Fe-Ni sulfides, Fe-Ni metal, and accessory phases. The very wide range of olivine and low-Ca pyroxene compositions in comet Wild 2 requires a wide range of formation conditions, probably reflecting very different formation locations in the protoplanetary disk. The restricted compositional ranges of Fe-Ni sulfides, the wide range for silicates, and the absence of hydrous phases indicate that comet Wild 2 experienced little or no aqueous alteration. Less abundant Wild 2 materials include a refractory particle, whose presence appears to require radial transport in the early protoplanetary disk.

Hajime Yano | Miaofang Chi | Michael E. Zolensky | Zu Rong Dai | Thomas H. See | Alexandre Simionovici | Laurence Lemelle | Jeffrey N. Grossman | Pierre Bleuet | Akira Tsuchiyama | Jean Susini | John P. Bradley | Donald E. Brownlee | Matthew J. Genge | Loan Le | Andrew J. Westphal | Philippe Gillet | Thomas Stephan | Christopher J. Snead | John C. Bridges | Keiko Nakamura-Messenger | Thomas J. Zega | Patrick Cordier | Sue Wirick | Anton T. Kearsley | Anna L. Butterworth | Lindsay P. Keller | Antonio Lanzirotti | Matthew A. Marcus | Naotaka Tomioka | Tomoki Nakamura | Peter Tsou | Kyoko Okudaira | Kazumasa Ohsumi | Falko Langenhorst | Matthieu Gounelle | Denton S. Ebel | Damien Jacob | Giles A. Graham | Frans J. M. Rietmeijer | Rhonda Stroud | Hope Ishii | M. Chi | L. Lemelle | A. Simionovici | A. Westphal | R. Bastien | P. Bleuet | J. Bridges | D. Brownlee | A. Butterworth | T. Ferroir | A. Kearsley | H. Leroux | F. Stadermann | T. Stephan | R. Stroud | J. Susini | P. Tsou | A. Tsuchiyama | M. Zolensky | J. Warren | M. Marcus | Z. Dai | B. Clark | C. Snead | T. See | H. Yano | P. Bland | F. Robert | M. Taheri | Tomoki Nakamura | N. Tomioka | D. Ebel | M. Perronnet | J. Bradley | N. Teslich | M. Velbel | L. Keller | R. Harvey | P. Cordier | K. Okudaira | F. Langenhorst | P. Gillet | H. Ishii | A. Meibom | S. Simon | K. Hagiya | S. Wirick | L. Le | D. Papanastassiou | K. Nakamura-messenger | D. Jacob | Jack L. Warren | Dimitri A. Papanastassiou | M. Genge | D. Joswiak | A. Brearley | A. Lanzirotti | Stewart Fallon | I. Weber | S. Mostefaoui | Anders Meibom | Iris Weber | Lawrence Grossman | Hugues Leroux | Frank J. Stadermann | Kazushige Tomeoka | M. Gounelle | William Rao | F. Rietmeijer | Phil A. Bland | S. Fallon | G. Matrajt | Adrian Brearley | George Flynn | Kenji Hagiya | Ralph Harvey | Graciela Matrajt | Takashi Mikouchi | Smail Mostefaoui | Ichiro Ohnishi | François Robert | Mitra Taheri | Nick Teslich | Alice Toppani | Michael A. Velbel | T. Zega | Steven B. Simon | Alexander N. Krot | A. Krot | T. Mikouchi | Mike K. Weisberg | Murielle C. Perronnet | David Joswiak | Tristan Ferroir | Benton Clark | Sean Brennan | Ron Bastien | I. Ohnishi | K. Ohsumi | M. Weisberg | J. Grossman | L. Grossman | K. Tomeoka | A. Toppani | W. Rao | G. Graham | G. Flynn | S. Brennan

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