A calculation of the mean age of interstellar dust particles

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dc.contributor.advisorClayton, Donald D.en_US
dc.creatorScowen, Paul Andrewen_US
dc.date.accessioned2009-06-04T00:26:04Zen_US
dc.date.available2009-06-04T00:26:04Zen_US
dc.date.issued1989en_US
dc.description.abstractThis thesis aims to compute the mean age of interstellar dust particles using a sputtering and recycling model originally formulated by Liffman and Clayton. The ages of the particles are evaluated after a period of 6 $\times$ 10$\sp9$ years, deemed here to be the age of our Galaxy, when the Solar System formed. I find a correlation between resulting particle sizes and their mean age. The consequence of this correlation is that if interstellar particles can be sorted dynamically by size, then the conglomerations of these size populations as dust grains will be composed of matter that is of differing ages. This age variation in grains of differing sizes will produce isotopic variations, or anomalies, due to the time dependent nature of secondary versus primary nucleosynthesis. The most important example of such an observed anomaly is the 5% enrichment of $\sp{16}$O in inclusions of Al$\sb2$O$\sb3$ in meteorite structures relative to the abundance of $\sp{16}$O in the solar gas. (Abstract shortened with permission of author.)en_US
dc.format.extent88 p.en_US
dc.format.mimetypeapplication/pdfen_US
dc.identifier.callnoThesis Sp. Sci. 1989 Scowenen_US
dc.identifier.citationScowen, Paul Andrew. "A calculation of the mean age of interstellar dust particles." (1989) Master’s Thesis, Rice University. <a href="https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13392">https://hdl.handle.net/1911/13392</a>.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/1911/13392en_US
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.rightsCopyright is held by the author, unless otherwise indicated. Permission to reuse, publish, or reproduce the work beyond the bounds of fair use or other exemptions to copyright law must be obtained from the copyright holder.en_US
dc.subjectAstronomyen_US
dc.subjectAstrophysicsen_US
dc.titleA calculation of the mean age of interstellar dust particlesen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
dc.type.materialTexten_US
thesis.degree.departmentSpace Scienceen_US
thesis.degree.disciplineNatural Sciencesen_US
thesis.degree.grantorRice Universityen_US
thesis.degree.levelMastersen_US
thesis.degree.nameMaster of Scienceen_US
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