期刊名称：Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
印刷版ISSN：0027-8424
电子版ISSN：1091-6490
出版年度：2008
卷号：105
期号：47
页码：18096-18101
DOI：10.1073/pnas.0801860105
语种：English
出版社：The National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America
摘要：Laser mass spectrometry is a powerful tool for the sensitive, selective, and spatially resolved analysis of organic compounds in extraterrestrial materials. Using microprobe two-step laser mass spectrometry ({micro}L2MS), we have explored the organic composition of many different exogenous materials, including meteorites, interplanetary dust particles, and interstellar ice analogs, gaining significant insight into the nature of extraterrestrial materials. Recently, we applied {micro}L2MS to analyze the effect of heating caused by hypervelocity particle capture in aerogel, which was used on the NASA Stardust Mission to capture comet particles. We show that this material exhibits complex organic molecules upon sudden heating. Similar pulsed heating of carbonaceous materials is shown to produce an artifactual fullerene signal. We review the use of {micro}L2MS to investigate extraterrestrial materials, and we discuss its recent application to characterize the effect of pulsed heating on samples of interest.
