The Northwest Africa (NWA) 5790 meteorite: A mesostasis‐rich nakhlite with little or no Martian aqueous alteration

Northwest Africa (NWA) 5790 is the most recently discovered member of the nakhlite group. Its mineralogy differs from the other nakhlites with a high abundance mesostasis (38.1 ± 3.6 vol%) and scarcity of olivine (4.0 ± 2.2 vol%). Furthermore, zoning of augite phenocrysts, and other petrographic and chemical characteristics suggest that NWA 5790 samples the chilled margin of its parent lava flow/sill. NWA 5790 contains calcite and rare clay minerals that are evidence for its exposure to liquid water. The calcite forms a cement to coatings of dust on the outer surface of the find and extends into the interior of the meteorite within veins. The presence of microbial remains within the coating confirms that the dust and its carbonate cement are terrestrial in origin, consistent with the carbon and oxygen isotope composition of the calcite. The clay minerals are finely crystalline and comprise ~0.003 vol% of the meteorite. δD values of the clay minerals range from ?212 ± 109‰ to ?96 ± 132‰, and cannot be used to distinguish between a terrestrial or Martian origin. As petrographic results are also not definitive, we conclude that secondary minerals produced by Martian groundwaters are at best very rare within NWA 5790. The meteorite has therefore sampled a region of the lava flow/sill with little or no exposure to the aqueous solutions that altered other nakhlites. This isolation could relate to the scarcity of olivine in NWA 5790 because dissolution of olivine in other nakhlites by Martian groundwaters enhanced their porosity and permeability, and provided solutes for secondary minerals.     

Warming the early earth—CO2 reconsidered

Despite a fainter Sun, the surface of the early Earth was mostly ice-free. Proposed solutions to this so-called “faint young Sun problem” have usually involved higher amounts of greenhouse gases than present in the modern-day atmosphere. However, geological evidence seemed to indicate that the atmospheric CO₂ concentrations during the Archaean and Proterozoic were far too low to keep the surface from freezing. With a radiative-convective model including new, updated thermal absorption coefficients, we found that the amount of CO₂ necessary to obtain 273 K at the surface is reduced up to an order of magnitude compared to previous studies. For the late Archaean and early Proterozoic period of the Earth, we calculate that CO₂ partial pressures of only about 2.9 mb are required to keep its surface from freezing which is compatible with the amount inferred from sediment studies. This conclusion was not significantly changed when we varied model parameters such as relative humidity or surface albedo, obtaining CO₂ partial pressures for the late Archaean between 1.5 and 5.5 mb. Thus, the contradiction between sediment data and model results disappears for the late Archaean and early proterozoic.     

In Situ Observations of Solar Wind Stream Interface Evolution

The heliocentric orbits of the two STEREO satellites are similar in radius and ecliptic latitude, with separation in longitude increasing by about 45° per year. This arrangement provides a unique opportunity to study the evolution of stream interfaces near 1 AU over time scales of hours to a few days, much less than the period of a Carrington rotation. Assuming nonevolving solar wind sources that corotate with the Sun, we calculated the expected time and longitude of arrival of stream interfaces at the Ahead observatory based on the in situ solar wind speeds measured at the Behind observatory. We find agreement to within 5° between the expected and actual arrival longitude until the spacecraft are separated by more than 20° in heliocentric inertial longitude. This corresponds to about one day between the measurement times. Much larger deviations, up to 25° in longitude, are observed after 20° separation. Some of the deviations can be explained by a latitude difference between the spacecraft, but other deviations most likely result from evolution of the source region. Both remote and in situ measurements show that changes at the source boundary can occur on a time scale much shorter than one solar rotation. In 32 of 41 cases, the interface was observed earlier than expected at STEREO/Ahead.     

Galaxy activity in merging binary galaxy clusters

We present the results of a study of galaxy activity in two merging binary clusters (A168 and A1750) using the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data supplemented with the data in the literature. We have investigated the merger histories of A168 and A1750 by combining the results from a two-body dynamical model and X-ray data. In A168, two subclusters appear to have passed each other and to be coming together from the recent maximum separation. In A1750, two major subclusters appear to have started interaction and to be coming together for the first time. We find an enhanced concentration of the galaxies showing star formation (SF) or active galactic nuclei (AGN) activity in the region between two subclusters in A168, which were possibly triggered by the cluster merger. In A1750, we do not find any galaxies with SF/AGN activity in the region between two subclusters, indicating that two major subclusters are in the early stage of merging.     

Plasma processing of interstellar PAHs into solar system kerogen

Processes resulting in the formation of hydrocarbons of carbonaceous chondrites and the identity of the interstellar molecular precursors involved are an objective of investigations into the origin of the solar system and perhaps even life on earth. We have combined the resources and experience of an astronomer and physicists doing laboratory simulations with those of a chemical expert in the analysis of meteoritic hydrocarbons, in a project that investigated the conversion of polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) formed in stellar atmospheres into alkanes found in meteorites. Plasma hydrogenation has been found in the University of Alabama at Birmingham Astrophysics Laboratory to produce from the precursor PAH naphthalene, a new material having an IR absorption spectrum (Lee, W. and Wdowiak, T.J., Astrophys. J. 417, L49-L51, 1993) remarkably similar to that obtained at Arizona State University of the benzene-methanol extract of the Murchison meteorite (Cronin, J.R. and Pizzarello, S., Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 54, 2859-2868, 1990). There are astrophysical and meteoritic arguments for PAH species from extra-solar sources being incorporated into the solar nebula, where plasma hydrogenation is highly plausible. Conversion of PAHs into alkanes could also have occurred in the interstellar medium. The synthesis of laboratory analogs of meteoritic hydrocarbons through plasma hydrogenation of PAH species is underway, as is chemical analysis of those analogs. The objective is to clarify this heretofore uninvestigated process and to understand its role during the origin of the solar system as a mechanism of production of hydrocarbon species now found in meteorites. Results have been obtained in the form of time-of-flight spectroscopy and chemical analysis of the lab analog prepared from naphthalene.     

APEX-SZ a Sunyaev–Zel’dovich galaxy cluster survey

The APEX-SZ experiment is a sky survey designed to discover galaxy clusters via the Sunyaev–Zel’dovich effect at millimeter wavelengths. We describe the components of the instrument, including the 12 m Atacama Pathfinder Experiment telescope, optics, Transition-edge sensor bolometer array and SQUID readout. APEX-SZ will begin observations in 2004.     

MAXIPOL: a balloon-borne experiment for measuring the polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation

We discuss MAXIPOL, a bolometric balloon-borne experiment designed to measure the E-mode polarization anisotropy of the cosmic microwave background radiation (CMB) on angular scales of 10^′ to 2°. MAXIPOL is the first CMB experiment to collect data with a polarimeter that utilizes a rotating half-wave plate and fixed wire-grid polarizer. We present the instrument design, elaborate on the polarimeter strategy and show the instrument performance during flight with some time domain data. Our primary dataset was collected during a 26 h turnaround flight that was launched from the National Scientific Ballooning Facility in Ft. Sumner, New Mexico in May 2003. During this flight five regions of the sky were mapped. Data analysis is in progress.