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Complex indigenous organic matter embedded in apollo 17 volcanic black glass surface deposits
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Clemett, S. J. Gonzalez, C. McKay, D. S. Thomas-Keprta, Kathie L. Ross, D. K. Rahman, Z. Le, L. Gibson, E. K. |
| Copyright Year | 2013 |
| Description | Papers presented at the first Lunar Science Conference [1] and those published in the subsequent Science Moon Issue [2] reported the C content of Apollo II soils, breccias, and igneous rocks as rang-ing from approx.50 to 250 parts per million (ppm). Later Fegley & Swindle [3] summarized the C content of bulk soils from all the Apollo missions as ranging from 2.5 (Apollo 15) to 280 ppm (Apollo 16) with an overall average of 124+/- 45 ppm. These values are unexpectedly low given that multiple processes should have contributed (and in some cases continue to contribute) to the lunar C inventory. These include exogenous accretion of cometary and asteroidal dust, solar wind implantation, and synthesis of C-bearing species during early lunar volcanism. We estimate the contribution of C from exogenous sources alone is approx.500 ppm, which is approx.4x greater than the reported average. While the assessm ent of indigenous organic matter (OM) in returned lunar samples was one of the primary scientific goals of the Apollo program, extensive analysis of Apollo samples yielded no evidence of any significant indigenous organic species. Furthermore, with such low concentrations of OM reported, the importance of discriminating indigenous OM from terrestrial contamination (e.g., lunar module exhaust, sample processing and handling) became a formidable task. After more than 40 years, with the exception of CH4 [5-7], the presence of indigenous lunar organics still remains a subject of considerable debate. We report for the first time the identification of arguably indigenous OM present within surface deposits of black glass grains collected on the rim of Shorty crater during the Apollo 17 mission by astronauts Eugene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt. |
| File Size | 467660 |
| Page Count | 2 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20130010053 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t3wt3p82x |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2013-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Lunar And Planetary Science And Exploration Comets Methane Dust Craters Lunar Geology Organic Materials Glass Igneous Rocks Volcanoes Breccia Solar Wind Lunar Rocks Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports Server (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Technical Report |
