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Nuth, Joseph A.

Publications and source records attributed to Nuth, Joseph A..

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
DOE OSTI2025

Abundant ammonia and nitrogen-rich soluble organic matter in samples from asteroid (101955) Bennu

Organic matter in meteorites reveals clues about early Solar System chemistry and the origin of molecules important to life, but terrestrial exposure complicates interpretation. Samples returned from the B-type asteroid Bennu by the Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, and Security–Regolith Explorer mission enabled us to study pristine carbonaceous astromaterial without uncontrolled exposure to Earth’s biosphere. Here we show that Bennu samples are volatile rich, with more carbon, nitrogen and ammonia than samples from asteroid Ryugu and most meteorites. Nitrogen-15 isotopic enrichments indicate that ammonia and other N-containing soluble molecules formed in a cold molecular cloud or the outer protoplanetary disk. We detected amino acids (including 14 of the 20 used in terrestrial biology), amines, formaldehyde, carboxylic acids, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons and N-heterocycles (including all five nucleobases found in DNA and RNA), along with ~10,000 N-bearing chemical species. All chiral non-protein amino acids were racemic or nearly so, implying that terrestrial life’s left-handed chirality may not be due to bias in prebiotic molecules delivered by impacts. The relative abundances of amino acids and other soluble organics suggest formation and alteration by low-temperature reactions, possibly in NH 3 -rich fluids. Bennu’s parent asteroid developed in or accreted ices from a reservoir in the outer Solar System where ammonia ice was stable.

79 ASTRONOMY AND ASTROPHYSICS↗
NASA NTRS2017

Options and Uncertainties in Planetary Defense: Mission Planning and Vehicle Design for Flexible Response

This paper is part of an integrated study by NASA and the NNSA to quantitatively understand the response timeframe should a threatening Earth-impacting near-Earth object (NEO) be identified. The two realistic responses considered are the use of a spacecraft functioning as either a kinetic impactor or a nuclear explosive carrier to deflect the approaching NEO. The choice depends on the NEO size and mass, the available response time prior to Earth impact, and the various uncertainties. Whenever practical, the kinetic impactor is the preferred approach, but various factors, such as large uncertainties or short available response time, reduce the kinetic impactor's suitability and, ultimately, eliminate its sufficiency. Herein we examine response time and the activities that occur between the time when an NEO is recognized as being a sufficient threat to require a deflection and the time when the deflection impulse is applied to the NEO. To use a kinetic impactor for successful deflection of an NEO, it is essential to minimize the reaction time and maximize the time available for the impulse delivered to the NEO by the kinetic impactor to integrate forward in time to the eventual deflection of the NEO away from Earth impact. To shorten the response time, we develop tools to survey the profile of needed spacecraft launches and the possible mission payloads. We further present a vehicle design capable of either serving as a kinetic impactor, or, if the need arises, serving as a system to transport a nuclear explosive to the NEO. These results are generated by analyzing a specific case study in which the simulated Earth-impacting NEO is modeled very closely after the real NEO known as 101955 Bennu (1999 RQ36). Bennu was selected for our case study in part because it is the best-studied of the known NEOs. It is also the destination of NASA's OSIRIS-REx sample return mission, which is, at the time of this writing, enroute to Bennu following a September 2016 launch.

characterization↗
NASA NTRS2016

Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) Formulation Assessment and Support Team (FAST) Final Report

The Asteroid Redirect Mission (ARM) Formulation Assessment and Support Team (FAST) was a two-month effort, chartered by NASA, to provide timely inputs for mission requirement formulation in support of the Asteroid Redirect Robotic Mission (ARRM) Requirements Closure Technical Interchange Meeting held December 15-16, 2015, to assist in developing an initial list of potential mission investigations, and to provide input on potential hosted payloads and partnerships. The FAST explored several aspects of potential science benefits and knowledge gain from the ARM. Expertise from the science, engineering, and technology communities was represented in exploring lines of inquiry related to key characteristics of the ARRM reference target asteroid (2008 EV5) for engineering design purposes. Specific areas of interest included target origin, spatial distribution and size of boulders, surface geotechnical properties, boulder physical properties, and considerations for boulder handling, crew safety, and containment. In order to increase knowledge gain potential from the mission, opportunities for partnerships and accompanying payloads were also investigated. Potential investigations could be conducted to reduce mission risks and increase knowledge return in the areas of science, planetary defense, asteroid resources and in-situ resource utilization, and capability and technology demonstrations. This report represents the FASTâ€"TM"s final product for the ARM.

Mazanek, Daniel D.↗
NASA NTRS2012

Can Lightning Produce Significant Levels of Mass-Independent Oxygen Isotopic Fractionation in Nebular Dust?

Based on recent evidence that oxide grains condensed from a plasma will contain oxygen that is mass independently fractionated compared to the initial composition of the vapor, we present a first attempt to evaluate the potential magnitude of this effect on dust in the primitive solar nebula. This assessment relies on previous studies of nebular lightning to provide reasonable ranges of physical parameters to form a very simple model to evaluate the plausibility that lightning could affect a significant fraction of nebular dust and that such effects could cause a significant change in the oxygen isotopic composition of solids in the solar nebula over time. If only a small fraction of the accretion energy is dissipated as lightning over the volume of the inner solar nebula, then a large fraction of nebular dust will be exposed to lightning. If the temperature of such bolts is a few percent of the temperatures measured in terrestrial discharges, then dust will vaporize and recondense in an ionized environment. Finally, if only a small average decrease is assumed in the O-16 content of freshly condensed dust, then over the last 5 million years of nebular accretion the average delta O-17 of the dust could increase by more than 30 per mil. We conclude that it is possible that the measured " slope 1" oxygen isotope line measured in meteorites and their components represents a time-evolution sequence of nebular dust over the last several million years of nebular evolution O-16-rich materials formed first, then escaped further processing as the average isotopic composition of the dust graduaUy became increasingly depleted in O-16 .

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Variability of Disk Emission in Pre-Main Sequence and Related Stars. II. Variability in the Gas and Dust Emission of the Herbig Fe Star SAO 206462

We present thirteen epochs of near-infrared (0.8-5 microns) spectroscopic observations of the pre-transitional, "gapped" disk system in SAO 206462 (=HD 135344B). In all, six gas emission lines (Br(alpha) , Br(gamma), Pa(beta), Pa(delta), Pa(epsilon), and the 0.8446 microns line of O I) along with continuum measurements made near the standard J, H, K, and L photometric bands were measured. A mass accretion rate of approximately 2 x 10(exp 8)Solar Mass/yr was derived from the Br(gamma) and Pa(beta) lines. However, the fluxes of these lines varied by a factor of over two during the course of a few months. The continuum also varied, but by only approx.30%, and even decreased at a time when the gas emission was increasing. The H I line at 1.083 microns was also found to vary in a manner inconsistent with that of either the hydrogen lines or the dust. Both the gas and dust variabilities indicate significant changes in the region of the inner gas and the inner dust belt that may be common to many young disk systems. If planets are responsible for defining the inner edge of the gap, they could interact with the material on time scales commensurate with what is observed for the variations in the dust, while other disk instabilities (thermal, magneto-rotational) would operate there on longer time scales than we observe for the inner dust belt. For SAO 206462, the orbital period would likely be 1-3 years. If the changes are being induced in the disk material closer to the star than the gap, a variety of mechanisms (disk instabilities, interactions via planets) might be responsible for the changes seen. The He I feature is most likely due to a wind whose orientation changes with respect to the observer on time scales of a day or less. To further constrain the origin of the gas and dust emission will require multiple spectroscopic and interferometric observations on both shorter and longer time scales that have been sampled so far.

Sitko, Michael L.↗
NASA NTRS2011

Synthesis of Stacked-Cup Carbon Nanotubes in a Metal Free Low Temperature System

Stacked-cup carbon nanotubes were formed by either Fischer-Tropsch type or Haber Bosch type reactions in a metal free system. Graphite particles were used as the catalyst. The samples were heated at 600 C in a gas mixture of CO 75 Torr, N2 75 Torr and H2 550 Torr for three days. Trans mission electron microscope analysis of the catalyst surface at the completion of the experiment recognized the growth of nanotubes. They were 10-50 nm in diameter and approximately 1 micrometer in length. They had a hollow channel of 5-20 nm in the center. The nanotubes may have grown on graphite surfaces by the CO disproportionation reaction and the surface tension of the carbon nucleus may have determined the diameter. Although, generally, the diameter of a carbon nanotube depends on the size of the cataly1ic particles, the diameter of the nanotubes on graphite particles was independent of the particle size and significantly confined within a narrow range compared with that produced using catalytic amorphous iron-silicate nanoparticles. Therefore, they must have an unknown formation process that is different than the generally accepted mechanism.

Kimura, Yuki↗
NASA NTRS2010

Modeling Nucleation and Grain Growth in the Solar Nebula: Initial Progress Report

The primitive solar nebula was a violent and chaotic environment where high energy collisions, lightning, shocks and magnetic re-connection events rapidly vaporized some fraction of nebular dust, melted larger particles while leaving the largest grains virtually undisturbed. At the same time, some tiny grains containing very easily disturbed noble gas signatures (e.g., small, pre-solar graphite or SiC particles) never experienced this violence, yet can be found directly adjacent to much larger meteoritic components (chondrules or CAIs) that did. Additional components in the matrix of the most primitive carbonaceous chondrites and in some chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles include tiny nebular condensates, aggregates of condensates and partially annealed aggregates. Grains formed in violent transient events in the solar nebula did not come to equilibrium with their surroundings. To understand the formation and textures of these materials as well as their nebular abundances we must rely on Nucleation Theory and kinetic models of grain growth, coagulation and annealing. Such models have been very uncertain in the past: we will discuss the steps we are taking to increase their reliability.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

A Self-Perpetuating Catalyst for the Production of Complex Organic Molecules in Protostellar Nebulae

The formation of abundant carbonaceous material in meteorites is a long standing problem and an important factor in the debate on the potential for the origin of life in other stellar systems. Many mechanisms may contribute to the total organic content in protostellar nebulae, ranging from organics formed via ion-molecule and atom-molecule reactions in the cold dark clouds from which such nebulae collapse, to similar ion-molecule and atom-molecule reactions in the dark regions of the nebula far from the proto star, to gas phase reactions in sub-nebulae around growing giant planets and in the nebulae themselves. The Fischer-Tropsch-type (FTT) catalytic reduction of CO by hydrogen was once the preferred model for production of organic materials in the primitive solar nebula. The Haber-Bosch catalytic reduction of N2 by hydrogen was thought to produce the reduced nitrogen found in meteorites. However, the clean iron metal surfaces that catalyze these reactions are easily poisoned via reaction with any number of molecules, including the very same complex organics that they produce and both reactions work more efficiently in the hot regions of the nebula. We have demonstrated that many grain surfaces can catalyze both FTT and HB-type reactions, including amorphous iron and magnesium silicates, pure silica smokes as well as several minerals. Although none work as well as pure iron grains, and all produce a wide range of organic products rather than just pure methane, these materials are not truly catalysts.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS2010

Trapping Planetary Noble Gases During the Fischer-Tropsch-Type Synthesis of Organic Materials

When hydrogen, nitrogen and CO arc exposed to amorphous iron silicate surfaces at temperatures between 500 - 900K, a carbonaceous coating forms via Fischer-Tropsch type reactions!, Under normal circumstances such a catalytic coating would impede or stop further reaction. However, we find that this coating is a better catalyst than the amorphous iron silicates that initiate these rcactions:u . The formation of a self-perpetuating catalytic coating on grain surfaces could explain the rich deposits of macromolecular carbon found in primitive meteorites and would imply that protostellar nebulae should be rich in organic materiaL Many more experiments are needed to understand this chemical system and its application to protostellar nebulae.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS2009

Lightning and Mass Independent Oxygen Isotopic Fractionation in Nebular Silicates

Lightning has long been postulated as the agent of Chondru|e formation in the solar nebula, but it may have an additional role to play as well. Lightning bolts of almost any scale will both vaporize dust and liberate oxygen atoms that will then interact with both nebular gases as well as the refractory silicate vapor as it re-condenses. Such processes should result in the addition of the heavy oxygen isotopes to the growing silicate grains while the light oxygen-16 becomes part of the gas phase water. This process will proceed to some extent throughout the history of any turbulent nebula and will result in the gradual increase of O-16 in the gas phase and in a much larger relative increase in the O-17 and O-18 content of the nebular dust. Laboratory experiments have demonstrated the production of such "heavy oxygen enriched", non-mass-dependently-fractionated dust grains in a high voltage discharge in a hydrogen rich gas containing small quantities of silane, pentacarbonyl iron and oxygen.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS2009

NEOCAM: Near Earth Object Chemical Analysis Mission: Bridging the Gulf between Telescopic Observations and the Chemical and Mineralogical Compositions of Asteroids or Diogenes A: Diagnostic Observation of the Geology of Near Earth Spectrally-Classified Asteroids

Studies of meteorites have yielded a wealth of scientific information based on highly detailed chemical and isotopic studies possible only in sophisticated terrestrial laboratories. Telescopic studies have revealed an enormous (greater than 10(exp 5)) number of physical objects ranging in size from a few tens of meters to several hundred kilometers, orbiting not only in the traditional asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter but also throughout the inner solar system. Many of the largest asteroids are classed into taxonomic groups based on their observed spectral properties and are designated as C, D. X, S or V types (as well as a wide range in sub-types). These objects are certainly the sources far the meteorites in our laboratories, but which asteroids are the sources for which meteorites? Spectral classes are nominally correlated to the chemical composition and physical characteristics of the asteroid itself based on studies of the spectral changes induced in meteorites due to exposure to a simulated space environment. While laboratory studies have produced some notable successes (e.g. the identification of the asteroid Vesta as the source of the H, E and D meteorite classes), it is unlikely that we have samples of each asteroidal spectral type in our meteorite collection. The correlation of spectral type and composition for many objects will therefore remain uncertain until we can return samples of specific asteroid types to Earth for analyses. The best candidates for sample return are asteroids that already come close to the Earth. Asteroids in orbit near 1 A.U. have been classified into three groups (Aten, Apollo & Amor) based on their orbital characteristics. These Near Earth Objects (NEOs) contain representatives of virtually all spectral types and sub-types of the asteroid population identified to date. Because of their close proximity to Earth, NEOs are prime targets for asteroid missions such as the NEAR-Shoemaker NASA Discovery Mission to Eros and the Japanese Hyabusa Mission to Itokawa. Also due to their close proximity to Earth, NEOs constitute the most likely set of celestial objects that will impact us in the relatively near future.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS1996

The concept of a facility for cosmic dust research on the International Space Station

A proposal for the development of a permanently operating facility for the experimental investigation of cosmic dust-related phenomena onboard the International Space Station (ISS) is presented. Potential applications for this facility are the convection-free nucleation of dust grains, studies of coagulation and aggregation phenomena in a microgravity environment, investigations of heat transport through, and dust emissions from, high-porosity cometary analogs, and experiments on the interaction of very fluffy dust grains with electromagnetic radiation and with low pressure gas flows. Possible extensions of such a facility are towards aerosol science and colloidal plasma research.

Blum, Juergen↗
NASA NTRS1991

The SiH vibrational stretch as an indicator of the chemical state of interstellar grains

The infrared spectra of amorphous silicate grains and films formed in a variety of laboratory experiments have been measured. It is found that the frequency of the SiH fundamental stretch is extremely sensitive to the chemical environment of the grain in which the silicon is bound and varies from 2270/cm in oxidized grains to 2110/cm in a reducing environment. It is proposed that features previously observed in W33A could be due to -SiH groups in amorphous silica, partially reduced silica, silicon nitride or slightly oxidized silicon carbide. It is predicted that observations at 2270/cm will reveal a feature due to -SiH groups in highly oxidized interstelar and circumstellar grains. Such a feature might also appear in the spectra of comets.

Moore, Marla H.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Laboratory studies of refractory metal oxide smokes

Studies of the properties of refractory metal oxide smokes condensed from a gas containing various combinations of SiH4, Fe(CO)5, Al(CH3)3, TiCl4, O2 and N2O in a hydrogen carrier stream at 500 K greater than T greater than 1500 K were performed. Ultraviolet, visible and infrared spectra of pure, amorphous SiO(x), FeO(x), AlO(x) and TiO(x) smokes are discussed, as well as the spectra of various co-condensed amorphous oxides, such as FE(x)SiO(y) or Fe(x)AlO(y). Preliminary studies of the changes induced in the infrared spectra of iron-containing oxide smokes by vacuum thermal annealing suggest that such materials become increasingly opaque in the near infrared with increased processing: hydration may have the opposite effect. More work on the processing of these materials is required to confirm such a trend: this work is currently in progress. Preliminary studies of the ultraviolet spectra of amorphous Si2O3 and MgSiO(x) smokes revealed no interesting features in the region from 200 to 300 nm. Studies of the ultraviolet spectra of both amorphous, hydrated and annealed SiO(x), TiO(x), AlO(x) and FeO(x) smokes are currently in progress. Finally, data on the oxygen isotopic composition of the smokes produced in the experiments are presented, which indicate that the oxygen becomes isotopically fractionated during grain condensation. Oxygen in the grains is as much as 3 percent per amu lighter than the oxygen in the original gas stream. The authors are currently conducting experiments to understand the mechanism by which fractionation occurs.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS1989

Laboratory experiments on carbonaceous material as a source for the red rectangle visual emissions

The authors subjected mixtures of CO, Ar, N2, H2O, and CH4 with 42 percent and 8 percent argon to an electrical discharge, froze out the reaction products at T about 20 K, and subsequently warmed the sample to room temperature. This resulted in a stable residue having broad-band fluorescence. It is suggested tht interstellar grains in the Red Rectangle/HD 44179 are coated with a residue of generally similar composition that is responsible for the broad emission feature in the 5400-7500 A spectral region.

Wdowiak, Thomas J.↗
NASA NTRS1988

SiH and the unidentified 4.6 micron feature

Results from experimental studies of the irradiation of SiH4-H2O and Fe(CO)5-SiH4-H2O ice mixtures at 15 K using 1 MeV protons have revealed the synthesis of a very stable infrared spectral feature at 4.6 microns which is characteristic of the SiH functional group. This feature persists through warmup of the ice, exposure to air at 300 K, and vacuum annealing to at least 400 K. Because of the high cosmic abundance of both silicon and hydrogen and the unexpected stability of the SiH feature in our experiments, it is suggested that SiH might be responsible for the 4.6 micron absorption feature observed in W33A.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗
NASA NTRS1988

Workshop on the Origins of Solar Systems

Topics addressed include: interstellar chemistry and primitive bodies; astronomical measurements and nebula models; solar nebula models and meteorite; and planetary accumulation and evolution.

Nuth, Joseph A.↗