Meteorites: Samples of the solar system
Date and Time
Location
MacN 401
Details
Speaker
Jeff Berger
Abstract
Meteorites are extraterrestrial objects that provide windows to the processes that formed the Earth and the solar system. They are samples of the Moon, Mars, 4 Vesta and other asteroid belt objects, and even planetessimals that were disrupted during the early history of the solar system. Many also preserve presolar grains formed in stellar environments before the solar system formed. The information contained in the 52,800 named individual meteorites has been vital to understanding the composition of the Earth, and meteoritics is thus a prominent subdiscipline of geology. I will provide an overview of meteorites, focussing on how they formed and what we can learn from them. I will then discuss the Angrite class of meteorites, and what they tell us about the differentiated planetessimal they formed on. I will also cover the 163 Martian meteorites and why they are (and are not) helpful in understanding Mars.
Further Details
The talk is from 12:30 to 1:30 pm. Snacks will be provided at 12:00 pm. Make sure to follow the Graduate Seminar Series on Facebook.