Morphological Study of Insoluble Organic Matter Residues from Primitive.

摘要

Insoluble organic matter (IOM) constitutes a major proportion, 70-99%, of the total organic carbon found in primitive chondrites (1, 2). One characteristic morphological component of IOM is nanoglobules (3, 4). Some nanoglobules exhibit large N-15 and D enrichments relative to solar values, indicating that they likely originated in the ISM or the outskirts of the protoplanetary disk (3). A recent study of samples from the Tagish Lake meteorite with varying levels of hydrothermal alteration suggest that nanoglobule abundance decreases with increasing hydrothermal alteration (5). The aim of this study is to further document the morphologies of IOM from a range of primitive chondrites in order to determine any correlation of morphology with petrographic grade and chondrite class that could constrain the formation and/or alteration mechanisms.