Solar wind Ar, Kr, and Xe abundances deduced from Genesis targets

Abstract

The Sun's composition is a proxy for that of the solar nebula, which serves as a reference baseline in earth and planetary science. The Sun's composition can be inferred by analyzing its outflowing particle stream, the solar wind (SW). The Genesis mission returned targets irradiated with SW for ~2 years [1], which allow to directly constrain modern SW Ar, Kr, and Xe compositions. Such analyses could so far only be made indirectly on SW irradiated regolith samples [2-4].

Additional details