Heavy noble gases in solar wind delivered by Genesis mission
Abstract
One of the major goals of the Genesis Mission was to refine our knowledge of the isotopic composition of the heavy noble gases in solar wind and, by inference, the Sun, which represents the initial composition of the solar system. This has now been achieved with permil precision: ^(36)Ar/^(38)Ar = 5.5005 ± 0.0040, ^(86)Kr/^(84)Kr = .3012 ± .0004, ^(83)Kr/^(84)Kr = .2034 ± .0002, ^(82)Kr/^(84)Kr = .2054 ± .0002, ^(80)Kr/^(84)Kr = .0412 ± .0002, ^(78)Kr/^(84)Kr = .00642 ± .00005, ^(136)Xe/^(132)Xe = .3001 ± .0006, ^(134)Xe/^(132)Xe = .3691 ± .0007, ^(131)Xe/^(132)Xe = .8256 ± .0012, ^(130)Xe/^(132)Xe = .1650 ± .0004, ^(129)Xe/^(132)Xe = 1.0405 ± .0010, ^(128)Xe/^(132)Xe = .0842 ± .0003, ^(126)Xe/^(132)Xe = .00416 ± .00009, and ^(124)Xe/^(132)Xe = .00491 ± .00007 (error-weighted averages of all published data). The Kr and Xe ratios measured in the Genesis solar wind collectors generally agree with the less precise values obtained from lunar soils and breccias, which have accumulated solar wind over hundreds of millions of years, suggesting little if any temporal variability of the isotopic composition of solar wind krypton and xenon. The higher precision for the initial composition of the heavy noble gases in the solar system allows (1) to confirm that, exept ^(136)Xe and ^(134)Xe, the mathematically derived U–Xe is equivalent to Solar Wind Xe and (2) to provide an opportunity for better understanding the relationship between the starting composition and Xe-Q (and Q-Kr), the dominant current "planetary" component, and its host, the mysterious phase-Q.
Additional Information
© 2013 Elsevier Ltd. Received 11 April 2013; accepted in revised form 23 November 2013; available online 7 December 2013. Associate editor: Gregory F. Herzog. We are grateful to Judy Allton, Patti Burkett, Wally Calaway, Amy Jurewicz, Karen McNamara,Melissa Rodriguez (Genesis Science team) and John Saxton and Phil Freedman (Nu Instruments) for their support. We thank Gregory Herzog, Kurt Marti, Robert Pepin and Jamie Gilmour for their valuable comments. This work is funded by NASA Grants NNX09AC57G and NNX13AD14G.Attached Files
Accepted Version - nihms915825.pdf
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Additional details
- PMCID
- PMC5688518
- Eprint ID
- 43977
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.gca.2013.11.030
- Resolver ID
- CaltechAUTHORS:20140225-102334485
- NNX09AC57G
- NASA
- NNX13AD14G
- NASA
- Created
-
2014-02-25Created from EPrint's datestamp field
- Updated
-
2022-04-11Created from EPrint's last_modified field
- Caltech groups
- Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences