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K. Nakamura, W. Kloeck (Dept. of Mineralogy\&Geochemistry, University of Halle, Germany), W. Erfurth, M. Wiegand (Max-Planck-Institute of Microstructure Physics, Halle, Germany)
The cometary mission Rosetta by ESA will rendezvous with comet Wirtanen and study its nucleus and environment [1]. MIDAS will be one of the instruments onboard Rosetta imaging cometary dust with AFM for the first time in space [2]. In order to interpret the resulting AFM images a database of morphologies and correlated internal textures of various comet analogue materials is being developed. Experiments on artificial materials and especially on interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are under way [3]. IDPs obtained from the NASA curatorial facility are cleaned from Si-oil. Without conductive coating they are first imaged in a field emission SEM, subsequently studied with an atomic force microscope and finally sectioned for TEM investigations. This is a report of our continuing study of 30 pieces of IDPs.
References: [1] Schwehm G. (1995) ESA-SP-1179, 28-30. [2] Riedler W. et al. (1998) Adv. Space Res.,21, 1547-1556. [3] Nakamura K. et.al. (1999) Meteoritics & Planet. Sci., 34, (in press).
The author(s) of this abstract have provided an email address for comments about the abstract: nakamura@geologie.uni-halle.de