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Science 15 December 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5806, pp. 1731 - 1735
DOI: 10.1126/science.1136141
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Reports

Elemental Compositions of Comet 81P/Wild 2 Samples Collected by Stardust

George J. Flynn,1* Pierre Bleuet,2 Janet Borg,3 John P. Bradley,4 Frank E. Brenker,5 Sean Brennan,6 John Bridges,7 Don E. Brownlee,8 Emma S. Bullock,9 Manfred Burghammer,2 Benton C. Clark,10 Zu Rong Dai,4 Charles P. Daghlian,11 Zahia Djouadi,3 Sirine Fakra,12 Tristan Ferroir,13 Christine Floss,14 Ian A. Franchi,7 Zack Gainsforth,15 Jean-Paul Gallien,16 Philippe Gillet,13 Patrick G. Grant,4 Giles A. Graham,4 Simon F. Green,7 Faustine Grossemy,3 Philipp R. Heck,17 Gregory F. Herzog,18 Peter Hoppe,17 Friedrich Hörz,19 Joachim Huth,17 Konstantin Ignatyev,6 Hope A. Ishii,4 Koen Janssens,20 David Joswiak,8 Anton T. Kearsley,21 Hicham Khodja,16 Antonio Lanzirotti,22 Jan Leitner,23 Laurence Lemelle,13 Hugues Leroux,24 Katharina Luening,6 Glenn J. MacPherson,9 Kuljeet K. Marhas,14 Matthew A. Marcus,12 Graciela Matrajt,8 Tomoki Nakamura,25 Keiko Nakamura-Messenger,26 Tsukasa Nakano,27 Matthew Newville,22 Dimitri A. Papanastassiou,28 Piero Pianetta,6 William Rao,29 Christian Riekel,2 Frans J. M. Rietmeijer,30 Detlef Rost,9 Craig S. Schwandt,26 Thomas H. See,26 Julie Sheffield-Parker,31 Alexandre Simionovici,13 Ilona Sitnitsky,1 Christopher J. Snead,15 Frank J. Stadermann,14 Thomas Stephan,23 Rhonda M. Stroud,32 Jean Susini,2 Yoshio Suzuki,33 Stephen R. Sutton,22 Susan Taylor,34 Nick Teslich,4 D. Troadec,24 Peter Tsou,28 Akira Tsuchiyama,35 Kentaro Uesugi,33 Bart Vekemans,20 Edward P. Vicenzi,9 Laszlo Vincze,36 Andrew J. Westphal,15 Penelope Wozniakiewicz,21 Ernst Zinner,14 Michael E. Zolensky19

We measured the elemental compositions of material from 23 particles in aerogel and from residue in seven craters in aluminum foil that was collected during passage of the Stardust spacecraft through the coma of comet 81P/Wild 2. These particles are chemically heterogeneous at the largest size scale analyzed (~180 ng). The mean elemental composition of this Wild 2 material is consistent with the CI meteorite composition, which is thought to represent the bulk composition of the solar system, for the elements Mg, Si, Mn, Fe, and Ni to 35%, and for Ca and Ti to 60%. The elements Cu, Zn, and Ga appear enriched in this Wild 2 material, which suggests that the CI meteorites may not represent the solar system composition for these moderately volatile minor elements.

1 Department of Physics, State University of New York at Plattsburgh, 101 Broad Street, Plattsburgh, NY 12901, USA.
2 European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, Grenoble, France.
3 Institut d'Astrophysique Spatiale, Orsay, France.
4 Institute of Geophysics and Planetary Physics, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, CA 94550, USA.
5 Institut für Mineralogy, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt, Germany.
6 Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, Menlo Park, CA 94025, USA.
7 The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
8 Department of Astronomy, University of Washington, Seattle, WA 98195, USA.
9 Department of Mineral Sciences, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560, USA.
10 Lockheed Martin, Post Office Box 179, Denver, CO 80201, USA.
11 Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
12 Advanced Light Source, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
13 École Normale Supérieure de Lyon, Lyon, France.
14 Washington University, St. Louis, MO 63130, USA.
15 Space Sciences Laboratory, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720, USA.
16 Laboratory Pierre Süe, CEA/CNRS, Saclay, France.
17 Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, Mainz, Germany.
18 Department of Chemistry and Chemical Biology, Rutgers University, Piscataway, NJ 08854, USA.
19 NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
20 Department of Chemistry, Universiteit Antwerpen, Antwerp, Belgium.
21 Department of Mineralogy, The Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD, UK.
22 The University of Chicago, Chicago, IL 60637, USA.
23 Institut für Planetologie, Universität Münster, 48149 Münster, Germany.
24 University Lille, Lille, France.
25 Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
26 Engineering and Science Contract Group/Jacobs Sverdrup, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.
27 Geological Survey of Japan, National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, Tsukuba, Japan.
28 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
29 University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602, USA.
30 Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM 87131, USA.
31 XRT Limited, Port Melbourne, Australia.
32 U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Washington, DC 20375, USA.
33 Japan Synchrotron Radiation Research Institute/SPring-8, Hyougo, Japan.
34 Engineering Research and Development Center/Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory, Hanover, NH 03755, USA.
35 Osaka University, Toyonaka, Japan.
36 Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: george.flynn{at}plattsburgh.edu

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)