Meteorite's Inclusions Incorporated Short-Lived Radionuclie Curium-247 (IMAGE)

University of Chicago

Meteorite's Inclusions Incorporated Short-Lived Radionuclie Curium-247

Caption

The Allende carbonaceous meteorite is peppered with inclusions that have a ceramic-like chemistry (red for calcium, blue for aluminum, green for magnesium in the false color image below; field of view is 0.5 millimeters, approximately one-hundredth of an inch). When they formed, these inclusions incorporated the short-lived nuclide curium-247 (with a half life of 15 million years), traces of which have been detected in research conducted at the University of Chicago as a significant excess in uranium-235, its decay product. Curium-247 came from nucleosynthesis in stars that lived and died before the solar system was born.

Credit

François L.H. Tissot

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News organizations may use this image in connection with reports about the research of Nicolas Dauphas and François Tissot.

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