Noble gases in Dome C micrometeorites - An attempt to disentangle asteroidal and cometary sources

Solar Wind Noble Gases in Micrometeorites

Simulation of Nitrogen and Noble Gases Release during Atmospheric Entry of Micrometeorites

Introduction: Micrometeorites represent the largest mass flux of extraterrestrial matter on Earth, and could have contributed significantly to the budget of volatile and biogenic elements at the Earth’s surface in the past [1]. Previous studies have shown that Antarctic micrometeorites (AMMs) have variable, and sometimes very high noble gas contents up to one order of magnitude higher than Orgu...

Comparison of the atmosphere above the South Pole , Dome C and Dome A : first attempt

The atmospheric properties above three sites (Dome C, Dome A and the South Pole) on the Internal Antarctic Plateau are investigated for astronomical applications using the monthly median of the analyses from ECMWF (the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts). Radiosoundings extended on a yearly time scale at the South Pole and Dome C are used to quantify the reliability of the ECMWF...

Cometary Origin of the Zodiacal Cloud and Carbonaceous Micrometeorites

The zodiacal cloud is a thick circumsolar disk of small debris particles produced by asteroid collisions and comets. The relative proportion in which these two source populations contribute to the zodiacal cloud and the exact physical mechanism that generates the bulk of observed dust were unknown. Here we model the IRAS observations of thermal emission from asteroid and cometary particles to e...

Fine-grained Mineralogy of Cometary Ultra- Carbonaceous Antarctic Micrometeorites

Introduction: The CONCORDIA micrometeorite collection recovered from central Antarctic snow contains fluffy, fragile particles [1] among which we identified some UltraCarbonaceous Antarctic Micrometeorites (UCAMMs) [2, 3]. UCAMMs are dominated by up to ~ 80 vol% of carbonaceous material that contains small and complex mineral assemblages [2-4]. Their structure and chemical compositions are remi...