FTIR AND MICR-RAMAN SPECTRSOCOPY OF CARBONACEOUS-CHONDRITE INCLUSIONS FROM THE KAPOETA METEORITE: EVIDENCE FOR THE EXISTENCE OF NANODIAMONDS WITH ASTROPHYSICAL IMPLICATIONS

ABDU Y; HAWTHORNE F.; VARELA M.E.; DULEY W.W.

Edmonton

Congreso; 76 Annual Meeting of the Meteoritical Soc; 2013

NASA

Kapoeta is an achondrite meteorite that belongs to the howardite group, which along with eucrites and diogenites, constitute the HED meteorites, with 4 Vesta as a probable parent asteroid. It is characterized as a gas-rich polymict breccia, and contains mm-sized dark inclusions that are described as carbonaceous chondrite (CC) materials [1]; these are believed to have been incorporated into the HED parent body by carbonaceous meteorites impactors at a later stage of its formation. Presolar nanodiamonds, with isotopically anomalous noble gases, were discovered in 1987 in the acid-treated residues of carbonaceous chondrites [2]. However, the origin and the process by which these nanodiamonds have formed is still debated. Here, we report the finding of nanodiamonds in CC material from the Kapoeta meteorite by Fourier-transform infrared (FTIR) and Raman spectroscopy.