SPACE AND COSMIC RAY PHYSICS SEMINAR

University of Maryland
Atlantic Building, Room 2400 4:30 PM Monday, October 6, 2008
Coffee, Tea & Snacks 4:15-4:30 PM

D. S. Burnett
CalTech

The Genesis Mission. Status and First Results on Solar Wind Composition

The Science goals of Genesis are to measure solar isotopic and elemental abundances to a precision required for planetary science purposes based on a 27 month sample of the solar wind implanted into high purity materials. The crash of our sample return capsule has made the analyses much more difficult, but sufficient materials were recovered to complete our measurement objectives. In addition to bulk solar wind we collected separate samples of high and low speed solar wind as well as a sample of coronal mass ejection material. Isotopic variations of He, Ne, and Ar in these different regimes have been measured. Preliminary data on the isotopic compositions of O and N as well as the Fe/Mg elemental ratio are available. The O, and probably N, isotopic compositions appear different from those on Earth.