Extraterrestrial materials

Extraterrestrial material refers to natural objects now on Earth that originated in outer

space. Such materials include cosmic dust and meteorites, as well as samples brought to
Earth by sample return missions from the Moon, asteroids and comets, as well as solar
wind particles.
Extraterrestrial materials are of value to science as it reveals the composition of
the gas and dust from which the Sun and the Solar System formed.

Categories[edit]
Extraterrestrial material for study on earth can be classified into a few broad categories,
namely:

1. Meteorites too large to vaporize on atmospheric entry but small enough to

leave fragments lying on the ground, among which are included likely
specimens from the asteroid and Kuiper belts as well as from the moon
and from Mars.
2. Moon rocks brought to Earth by robotic and crewed lunar missions.
3. Cosmic dust collected on Earth, in the Earth's stratosphere, and in low
Earth orbit which likely include particles from the present day interplanetary
dust cloud, as well as from comets.
4. Specimens collected by sample-return
missions from comets, asteroids, solar wind, which include "stardust
particles" from the present-day interstellar medium.
5. Presolar grains (extracted from meteorites and interplanetary dust
particles) that predate the formation of the Solar System. These are the
most pristine and valuable samples.
Collected on Earth[edit]

Dust collector with aerogel blocks as used by the Stardust and Tanpopo missions.

Examples of extraterrestrial material collected on Earth include cosmic dust and meteorites.

Some of the meteorites found on Earth had their origin in another Solar System object such
as the Moon,[1] Martian meteorites,[2][3] and the HED meteorite from Vesta.[4][5] Another
example is the Japanese Tanpopo mission that collected dust from low Earth orbit.[6] In
2019, researchers found interstellar dust in Antarctica which they relate to the Local
Interstellar Cloud. The detection of interstellar dust in Antarctica was done by the
measurement of the radionuclides Fe-60 and Mn-53 by highly sensitive Accelerator mass
spectrometry, where Fe-60 is the clear signature for a recent-supernova origin.[7]
Sample-return missions[edit]
Main article: Sample-return mission

To date, samples of Moon rock have been collected by robotic and crewed missions. The
comet Wild 2 (Genesis mission) and the asteroid Itokawa (Hayabusa mission) have each
been visited by robotic spacecraft that returned samples to Earth, and samples of the solar
wind were also returned by the robotic Genesis mission.[8][9]
Current sample-return missions are OSIRIS-REx to asteroid Bennu,[10][11] and Hayabusa2 to
asteroid Ryugu.[12] Several sample-return mission are planned for the Moon, Mars, and
Mars' moons (see: Sample-return mission#List of missions).
Material obtained from sample-return missions are considered pristine and
uncontaminated, and their curation and study must take place at specialized facilities where
the samples are protected from Earthly contamination and from contact with the
atmosphere.[13][14][15][16] These facilities are specially designed to preserve both the sample
integrity and protect the Earth from potential biological contamination. Restricted bodies
include planets or moons suspected to have either past or present habitable
environments to microscopic life, and therefore must be treated as extremely biohazardous.
[17][18]

Lines of study[edit]
Samples analyzed on Earth can be matched against findings of remote sensing, for more
insight into the processes that formed the Solar System.

Elemental and isotopic abundances[edit]

Present day elemental abundances are superimposed on an (evolving) galactic-average
set of elemental abundances that was inherited by the Solar System, along with some
atoms from local nucleosynthesis sources, at the time of the Sun's formation.[19][20]
[21]
 Knowledge of these average planetary system elemental abundances is serving as a tool
for tracking chemical and physical processes involved in the formation of planets, and the
evolution of their surfaces.[20]
Isotopic abundances provide important clues to the origin, transformation and geologic age
of the material being analyzed.[22]
Extraterrestrial materials also carry information on a wide range of nuclear processes.
These include for example: (i) the decay of now-
extinct radionuclides from supernova byproducts introduced into Solar System materials
shortly before the collapse of our solar nebula,[23] and (ii) the products
of stellar and explosive nucleosynthesis found in almost undiluted form in presolar grains.
[24]
 The latter are providing astronomers with information on exotic environments from the
early Milky Way galaxy.
Noble gases are particularly useful because they avoid chemical reactions, secondly
because many of them have more than one isotope on which to carry the signature of
nuclear processes, and because they are relatively easy to extract from solid materials by
simple heating. As a result, they play a pivotal role in the study of extraterrestrial materials.
[25]

Nuclear spallation effects[edit]

Particles subject to bombardment by sufficiently energetic particles, like those found
in cosmic rays, also experience the transmutation of atoms of one kind into another.
These spallation effects can alter the trace element isotopic composition of specimens in
ways which allow researchers to deduct the nature of their exposure in space.[citation needed]
These techniques have been used, for example, to look for (and determine the date of)
events in the pre-Earth history of a meteorite's parent body (like a major collision) that
drastically altered the space exposure of the material in that meteorite. For example,
the Murchison meteorite landed in Australia in 1967, but its parent body apparently
underwent a collision event about 800,000 years ago[26] which broke it into meter-sized
pieces.

Astrobiology[edit]
Astrobiology is an interdisciplinary scientific field concerned with the origins, early evolution,
distribution, and future of life in the universe. It involves investigations on the presence of
the organic compounds on comets, asteroids, Mars or the moons of the gas giants. Several
sample-return missions to asteroids and comets are currently in the works with a key
interest in astrobiology. More samples from asteroids, comets and moons could help
determine whether life formed in other astronomical bodies, and if it could have been
carried to Earth by meteorites or comets — a process termed panspermia.[27][28][29]
The abundant organic compounds in primitive meteorites and interplanetary dust
particles are thought to originate largely in the interstellar medium. However, this material
may have been modified in the protoplanetary disk and has been modified to varying
extents in the asteroidal parent bodies.[30]
Cosmic dust contains complex organic compounds (amorphous organic solids with a
mixed aromatic-aliphatic structure) that can be created naturally by stars and radiation.[31][32]
[33]
 These compounds, in the presence of water and other habitable factors, are thought to
have produced and spontaneously assembled the building blocks of life.[34][35]

Origin of water on Earth[edit]

Main article: Origin of water on Earth

The origin of water on Earth is the subject of a significant body of research in the fields
of planetary science, astronomy, and astrobiology. Isotopic ratios provide a unique
"chemical fingerprint" that is used to compare Earth's water with reservoirs elsewhere in the
Solar System. One such isotopic ratio, that of deuterium to hydrogen (D/H), is particularly
useful in the search for the origin of water on Earth. However, when and how that water
was delivered to Earth is the subject of ongoing research.[36][37]