2010 Annual Research Report

Dr. Marc Fries' research in 2010 has proceeded along three major projects.  One, analysis of Raman spectroscopy work on cometary materials returned to Earth by the NASA Stardust mission. Two, work on Raman spectroscopy of various samples for development of the Mars Microbeam Raman Spectrometer (MMRS)/Mars Multispectral Imager (MMI) paired instruments for future landed martian exploration. Three, analysis of Doppler weather data of meteors to locate and study meteorite falls.

1)   Stardust: Work is progressing steadily on analysis and interpretation of Raman measurements collected over the past four years. A sweeping set of analyses, hypotheses and conclusions were presented at the Timber Cove III meeting for Stardust research in February of 2011.

2)   MMRS/MMI: A series of sedimentary and lightly metamorphosed sedimentary rocks were examined using both green (532 nm wavelength) and red (633 nm) Raman excitation.  Work continues at JPL on development of a paired instrument suite, with an important milestone meeting slated for JPL in mid-February.

3)   Doppler weather radar studies of meteorite falls: This is a minor project featuring occasional analysis of major meteor events over the US and elsewhere. Data is currently under analysis from an Australian meteor, providing the first foray into radar data analysis from that country. A site visit to a new meteorite fall in central Texas revealed details about this unannounced fall from August of 2010 and radar observations to go with it.

Papers:

Fries M. and Steele A., “Raman Spectroscopy and Confocal Raman Imaging in Mineralogy and Petrography”, in Confocal Raman Microscopy. Dieing T., Hollricher O., Toporski J., eds. Springer Science, New York. ISBN 978-3-642-12521-8.

Zolensky M. and 24 co-authors to include Fries M., “Mineralogy and petrography of the Almahata Sitta ureilite”, Meteoritics and Planetary Science 45, 1618 (2010) 1618-1637.

Fries M. and Fries J., “Doppler weather radar as a meteorite recovery tool”, Meteoritics and Planetary Science 45, 9 (2010) 1476-1487.