LASP Science Seminars

Precious information for understanding the formation and evolution of the Solar System is contained within primitive meteorites and their components (e.g., presolar grains, organic matters). In this talk, I will start with presolar grains, micron-sized stellar relicts that predate our Solar System, to discuss the origin of the Solar System. Specially, I will present isotopic data of presolar grains from ancient supernovae, based on which we will glean the chemical and physical environments in their parent supernovae, which are important dust producers in the Galaxy. Then I will discuss xenolithic carbonaceous clasts embedded in Kapoeta meteorite, which are primitive micrometeorites that fell onto asteroid Vesta. I will present detailed information on the inventories of presolar grains and organic matters in these xenolithic carbonaceous clasts to discuss the initial distribution and evolution of circumstellar and interstellar materials across the Solar System.