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Science 17 November 2006:
Vol. 314. no. 5802, pp. 1133 - 1135
DOI: 10.1126/science.1133568
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Reports

Solar Wind Neon from Genesis: Implications for the Lunar Noble Gas Record

Ansgar Grimberg,1* Heinrich Baur,1 Peter Bochsler,2 Fritz Bühler,2 Donald S. Burnett,3 Charles C. Hays,4 Veronika S. Heber,1 Amy J. G. Jurewicz,5 Rainer Wieler1

Lunar soils have been thought to contain two solar noble gas components with distinct isotopic composition. One has been identified as implanted solar wind, the other as higher-energy solar particles. The latter was puzzling because its relative amounts were much too large compared with present-day fluxes, suggesting periodic, very high solar activity in the past. Here we show that the depth-dependent isotopic composition of neon in a metallic glass exposed on NASA's Genesis mission agrees with the expected depth profile for solar wind neon with uniform isotopic composition. Our results strongly indicate that no extra high-energy component is required and that the solar neon isotope composition of lunar samples can be explained as implantation-fractionated solar wind.

1 Isotope Geology and Mineral Resources, ETH Zürich NW, Clausiusstrasse 25, CH-8092 Zürich, Switzerland.
2 Physikalisches Institut, University of Bern, Sidlerstrasse 5, CH-3012 Bern, Switzerland.
3 Department of Geological and Planetary Sciences, Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA.
4 Jet Propulsion Laboratory Caltech, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA.
5 Arizona State University (ASU) Center for Meteorite Studies, ASU M/C 1404, Tempe, AZ 85287, USA.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: grimberg{at}erdw.ethz.ch

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