Cosmic-Ray-Produced Nuclides: Their Production and Uses for Solar-System Objects from Europa to the Earth and the Sun

Robert Reedy

(University of New Mexico)

Energetic nuclei interact with the outer parts of objects in the solar system and produce a variety of products, including nuclides. Some of these cosmogenic nuclides are used to study both these objects and the energetic particles. These energetic particles and their interactions will be reviewed, with emphasis on the production of nuclides. Applications that will be discussed include determining the time in space and preatmospheric sizes of meteorites, the times that materials have been on the top surfaces of planetary objects (including the Earths surface), erosion rates of lunar rocks, rates for mixing lunar soils, and studies of solar activity over the last few million years.

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