Experimental study on enstatite formation under circumstellar environments

2016 Fiscal Year Final Research Report

• Project/Area Number: 15K17787
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Young Scientists (B)
• Allocation Type: Multi-year Fund
• Research Field: Petrology/Mineralogy/Economic geology
• Research Institution: Kyoto University
• Principal Investigator: Takigawa Aki 京都大学, 白眉センター, 特定助教 (10750367)
• Project Period (FY): 2015-04-01 – 2017-03-31
• Keywords: 実験 / エンスタタイト / 凝縮 / 彗星塵

Outline of Final Research Achievements

In order to understand the condensation conditions of enstatite in cometary materials, an experimental setup, which enables to control the temperatures of vapors and substrates, and the Mg/Si ration of the gases, was developed. Condensation experiments of gases with SiO2/(SiO2+MgO) of 0.05-0.9 were carried out and forsterite, and ortho- and clone-enstatite grains were obtained as condensates. The results indicate that not only supersaturation ratio but also a trace amount of cations are important to form clinoenstatite.

Free Research Field

宇宙鉱物学