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Published Online February 27, 2003
Science DOI: 10.1126/science.1080576

Research Articles

Submitted on November 18, 2002
Accepted on February 19, 2003

Samples of Stars Beyond the Solar System: Silicate Grains in Interplanetary Dust

Scott Messenger 1, Lindsay P. Keller 2, Frank J. Stadermann 1, Robert M. Walker 1, Ernst Zinner 1

1 Laboratory for Space Sciences and Physics Department, Washington University, Saint Louis, MO 63130, USA.
2 Mail Code SR, NASA Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX 77058, USA.

We have identified six circumstellar silicate grains within interplanetary dust particles. Their extrasolar origins are demonstrated by their extremely anomalous oxygen isotopic compositions. Three 17O-rich grains appear to originate from red giant or asymptotic giant branch stars. One 16O-rich grain may be from a metal-poor star. Two 16O-poor grains have unknown stellar sources. One of the grains is forsterite, and two are amorphous silicate "GEMS," consistent with astronomical identifications of crystalline and amorphous silicates in the outflows of evolved stars. These observations suggest cometary origins of these IDPs and underscore the perplexing absence of silicates among circumstellar dust grains from meteorites.


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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)