Lifetimes of interstellar dust from cosmic ray exposure ages of presolar silicon carbide.

ABSTRACT: We determined interstellar cosmic ray exposure ages of 40 large presolar silicon carbide grains extracted from the Murchison CM2 meteorite. Our ages, based on cosmogenic Ne-21, range from 3.9 ± 1.6 Ma to ∼3 ± 2 Ga before the start of the Solar System ∼4.6 Ga ago. A majority of the grains have interstellar lifetimes of <300 Ma, which is shorter than theoretical estimates for large grains. These grains condensed in outflows of asymptotic giant branch stars <4.9 Ga ago that possibly formed during an episode of enhanced star formation ∼7 Ga ago. A minority of the grains have ages >1 Ga. Longer lifetimes are expected for large grains. We determined that at least 12 of the analyzed grains were parts of aggregates in the interstellar medium: The large difference in nuclear recoil loss of cosmic r

SUBMITTER: Heck PR 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6995017 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature