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Wilkening, L. L.

Publications and source records attributed to Wilkening, L. L..

At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1984

Trace elements in rims and interiors of Chainpur chondrules

Trace elements were measured in the rims and interiors of nine chondrules separated from the Chainpur LL-3 chondrite. Whole rock samples of Chainpur and samples of separated rims were also measured. Chondrule rims are moderately enriched in siderophile and volatile elements relative to the chondrule interiors. The enriched volatile elements include the lithophilic volatile element Zn. The moderate enrichment of volatiles in chondrule rims and the lack of severe depletion in chondrules can account for the complete volatile inventory in Chainpur. These results support a three-component model of chondrite formation in which metal plus sulfide, chondrules plus rims and matrix silicates are mixed to form chondrites.

Wilkening, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Gas-rich meteorites - Probes for particle environment and dynamical processes in the inner solar system

Although the asteroids are the most plausible candidates for the parent bodies of gas-rich meteorites, dynamical theories have been adduced which favor a cometary origin in certain cases, and some recent studies have indicated that, in the case of gas-rich carbonaceous chondrites, the solar flare irradiation of grains may have occurred prior to the formation of parent bodies. Attention is presently given to advances that have been made in the multidisciplinary studies, encompassing petrography, chemistry, and radiation effects, of the gas-rich meteorites. An evaluation is undertaken of the present understanding of gas-rich meteorite origin and evolution.

Goswami, J. N.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Evidence for aqueous alteration in a carbonaceous xenolith from the Plainview /H5/ chondrite

The compositions of the mineral components of two inclusions within a CM-like clast in the Plainview (H5) chondrite are determined. The inclusions have the morphologies of an Allende-like, coarse-grained CAI and an amoeboid olivine inclusion, respectively. Major constituents of the altered inclusions are found to be calcite, Mg-Fe-rich phyllosilicates, Fe-Ti oxides, and an Al-rich phyllosilicate, and it is suggested that the alteration process would have required transport of Ne, Cl, H2O, CO2, and FeO. Liquid water appears to be the medium in which the alterations took place, due to the presence of hydrous phases and significant quantities of iron required to produce the mineral assemblages now present from the inferred starting materials.

Nozette, S.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Comets

Vacuum ultraviolet observations from sounding rockets and satellite observatories of the gaseous comae of several comets are reviewed. The earliest of these led to discovery of the hydrogen envelope extending for millions of km from the nucleus. Subsequent observations of H I Lyman alpha, the OH (0,0 band and the oxygen resonance triplet provided strong evidence for the water-ice model of the cometary nucleus. Several species were discovered in the coma including C, C(+), CO, S, and CS. High resolution spectroscopy and the spatial variation of the observed emissions provide means to elucidate the production and excitation mechanisms of these species. The similarity of the spectra of the half dozen comets observed to date argues for a common, homogeneous composition (with the exception of dust and CO) of the cometary ice and a minimal effect on the neutral species due to molecular collisions in the inner coma.

Wilkening, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Regoliths on small bodies in the solar system

A regolith is defined as a layer or mantle of loose, incoherent, rocky material of whatever origin, that nearly everywhere forms the surface of the land and rests on coherent bedrock. The regoliths on many planetary bodies are the result of continual impacts, which transform coherent surfaces into fragmental debris. The present investigation is concerned with the special case of regolith formation and evolution on small objects, such as asteroids and meteorite parent bodies. First order models of regolith evolution on asteroidal surfaces are constructed on the basis of data provided by studies of lunar samples and meteorites. It appears that regolith formation proceeds by deposition of discrete layers of the widely spread ejecta primarily from the larger impacts. Moderate-size (100-300 km diameter) asteroids are covered by modest regoliths of the order of one km in depth. Small rocky asteroids develop negligible regoliths.

Housen, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Comets: Gases, ices, grains and plasma

The program and abstracts of the 97 papers delivered at the colloquium are presented. Cometary nuclei, comet dust, the coma, ion tails, several comet missions, and cometary origin and evolution were discussed.

Wilkening, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Missions to comets - The perspective in 1980

The design and performance characteristics of deep space missions to study comets are discussed. Following a brief review of the scientific objectives of cometary missions and the problems posed by cometary orbits and the cometary environment to designers of space missions, consideration is given to the spacecraft and planned trajectories of cometary missions either planned or under consideration at one time. The missions include the Gioto mission, a Halley fly-through to be launched by ESA which developed out of the defunct NASA/ESA Halley/Tempel 2 rendezvous mission; the Japanese Planet A and Soviet/French flyby missions to Halley; and the Halley Intercept Mission, studied by NASA but not approved. It is pointed out that although much new information will be obtained from the Halley flyby missions, the second generation of cometary missions will undoubtedly require a rendezvous mission such as the one NASA is still studying.

Wilkening, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A note on the Allan Hills A77278 unequilibrated ordinary chondrite

Petrographic measures of disequilibrium in the ALHA 77278 chondrite indicate that this meteorite is more equilibrated than its exceptionally high volatile element contents suggest. Based on its metal compositions, this meteorite should be classified as an LL3 rather than an L3 chondrite.

Mcsween, H. Y., Jr.↗
NASA NTRS1980

A study of chondrule rims and chondrule irradiation records in unequilibrated ordinary chondrites

A study of the possibility that chondrules may have had an independent existence in space was made by searching for unusual track densities in chondrules and by an investigation of the compositions of chondrule rims from thirteen unequilibrated ordinary chondrites. No unusual radiation was found; observed track densities can be explained in terms of cosmic ray exposure ages of the respective meteorites. Fine-grained rims that surround chondrules in unequilibrated ordinary chondrites are heterogeneous in composition consisting of iron sulfide and a silicate phase; fine-grained rims of the kind observed in primitive type 3 ordinary chondrites are absent in higher petrographic grades, but more crystalline, coarse-grained, and lacy sulfide rims are observed. This can be explained by chondrules having had an independent existence in space during which they acquired rims by condensation on their surfaces or by accretion of fine particles.

Allen, J. S.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Solar-ion penetration in the early solar nebula

A model for the early solar nebula is presented, along with the use of available ion range-energy relationships to determine when the irradiation of meteoritic grains occurred. Ions are assumed to travel on rectilinear paths with an energy change due solely to passage through absorbing materials, and consideration is given to the chances of energetic ions penetrating the nebular cloud to a distance of 3 AU. Cases of no absorbing gas, no absorbing dust, and the presence of both gas and dust are discussed, and model calculations are presented for protons and Fe nuclei ions. Penetration is found to decrease with the increase of the total amount of dust, a step function results when the size of the particles decreases, a fixed dust mass yields a penetration probability tending toward zero as the radius of the particles decreases, the fraction of the total dust mass required for penetration at 3 AU is small, and penetration to 3 AU readily occurs under present conditions.

Housen, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Asteroidal regoliths

A physical model is developed for the evolution of regoliths on small bodies and applied to the asteroid and meteorite parent bodies. The model considers global deposition of that fraction of cratering ejecta that is not lost to space. In addition, it is applied to cases of both strong, cohesive bodies and to bodies of weak, unconsolidated materials. It is found that large, strong asteroids generate surficial regoliths of a few kilometers depth while strong asteroids smaller than 10-km diameter generate negligible regoliths. In conclusion, it is noted that the theory that substantial regoliths are produced predominantly by blanketing differs from earlier hypotheses that asteroidal regoliths might be thin or absent and that short surface exposure of asteroidal materials is due chiefly to erosion rather than blanketing.

Housen, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS1979

The asteroids - Accretion, differentiation, fragmentation, and irradiation

Various types of meteorites have experienced processes of condensation, accretion, metamorphism, differentiation, brecciation, irradiation and fragmentation. A typical view of meteorite formation has been that the processes following accretion take place in a few asteroidal-sized (approximately 100 km) objects. Discovery of decay products of now extinct Al-26 and Pd-107 in meteorites, discovery of isotopic heterogeneity among meteorite types, re-analysis of meteorite cooling rates, and continuing study of meteoritic compositions have led some meteoriticists to conclude that meteorites obtained their chemical, isotopic, and some textural characteristics in objects initially less than 10 km in diameter. Such a scenario, which is described in this paper, raises the possibility that some of these small planetesimals may have been 'condensation nuclei' for the formation of comets as well as the precursors of asteroids.

Wilkening, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Regolith development and evolution on asteroids and the moon

Early descriptions of regoliths on small bodies were devised to account for observations of asteroids (Chapman 1971, 1976) and the gas-rich meteorites (Anders 1975). Lack of agreement between these approaches prompted Housen et al. (1978, 1979) to examine the problem in detail. The resulting model predicted that moderate-sized (100-300 km) asteroids should evolve regoliths up to a few kilometers deep which could be source regions of gas-rich meteorites. Smaller objects should have regoliths ranging from dust coatings to meters-thick layers depending on the strength of the object. The earlier model could not treat asteroids larger than 300 km in diameter. The model, now modified to treat larger-sized objects, predicts regolith depths, on asteroids larger than 300 km, which decrease with increasing size. A regolith depth of 7 m is predicted for the lunar maria in reasonable agreement with the observed depths of 5 m.

Housen, K. R.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Tysnes Island - An unusual clast composed of solidified, immiscible, Fe-FeS and silicate melts

An inclusion found in the Tysnes Island gas-rich H4 chondrite is described. The clast consists of two distinct portions, separated by a smooth boundary; the portions are a tear-drop shaped Fe-FeS eutecticlike intergrowth (0.5 cm greatest dimension) and a silicate consisting primarily of olivine in glass. Nickel enrichment is found in the metal at the metal-sulfide boundaries and in nodules within the metal. It is thought that the portions separated from one another as immiscible liquids and that the modal composition of each portion agrees with the compositions predicted for a total melt of an H-group chondrite. The inclusion is discussed in terms of the process of metal-silicate fractionation suggested by Fodor and Keil (1976).

Wilkening, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Ice clathrate as a possible source of the atmospheres of the terrestrial planets

The presence and compositions of atmospheres on the terrestrial planets do not follow directly from condensation models which would have earth accreting near 500 K. No single mechanism yet proposed adequately accounts for the abundances of noble gases and carbon and nitrogen in the atmospheres. We show that the composition of clathrates forming at low temperatures in cold regions of the nebula can be predicted. Addition of about 1 ppm clathrate material to the earth can explain observed abundances of Ar, Kr, and Xe. Condensation and adsorption processes occurring at 400-500 K are necessary to explain the observed abundances of Ne, H2O, C, and N. Possible sources of clathrates could be cometary bodies formed in the outer solar system.

Sill, G. T.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Carbonaceous chondritic material in the solar system

Carbonaceous chondritic matrix material (CCMM) appears to be an important planet-forming unit in the mid-solar system, from the orbits of Mars to that of Uranus. The type specimen for CCMM is the low-temperature (400-500 K) assemblage of clay minerals, organic polymer, magnetite, and Ni-rich iron sulfides which constitutes the black, fine-grained matrix of primitive carbonaceous chondrites. Solar-system objects which appear to be partly or wholly made of CCMM are the satellites of Mars, most asteroids, interplanetary dust, and, perhaps, comets, satellites of the outer planets and the rings of Uranus. CCMM constituents probably formed by low-temperature reactions of higher-temperature condensates with the ambient solar composition gas, or in the case of the organic polymer, by reactions of gaseous species catalyzed by solids.

Wilkening, L. L.↗
NASA NTRS1978

Conclusions derived from the evidence on accretion in meteorites

A study of the evidence on accretion in meteorites shows that gross chemical features of chondritic meteorite type were established by accretion of materials with characteristic chemical and isotopic compositions. Some meteorites have been subjected to intensive mechanical and/or thermal processes. Mixing has occurred among meteorite types, presumably late in the accretion sequence. From the materials which appear to have escaped substantial modification it can be concluded that the relative velocities between accreting grains varied but in some cases were very low. Accretion took place after most, if not all, of the gaseous components had been separated from the condensed portion of solar matter.

Herndon, J. M.↗