ToF-SIMS analysis of carbonaceous particles in the sample catcher of the Hayabusa spacecraft

Naraoka Hiroshi

Aoki Dan

Fukushima Kazuhiko

Uesugi Masayuki

Ito Motoo

Kitajima Fumio

Mita Hajime

Yabuta Hikaru

Takano Yoshinori

Yada Toru

Ishibashi Yukihiro

Karouji Yuzuru

Okada Takaaki

Abe Masanao

Earth, Planets and Space

Three carbonaceous category 3 particles (RA-QD02-0180, RB-QD04-0037-01, and RB-QD04-0047-02) returned in the sample catcher from the Hayabusa spacecraft were analyzed by time of flight-secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToF-SIMS) to establish an analytical procedure for determination of their origins. By the different analytical schemes, the three particles gave distinct elemental and molecular ions, in which the organic carbons commonly appear to be associated with nitrogen, silicon, and/or fluorine. The particles could be debris of silicon rubber and fluorinated compounds and are therefore man-made artifacts rather than natural organic matter.

Hayabusa spacecraft

Category 3 particle

Carbonaceous material

ToF-SIMS analysis

eng

Springer Open

© 2015 Naraoka et al.; licensee Springer. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited.

[ISSN] 1880-5981

[DOI] 10.1186/s40623-015-0224-0

[DOI] https://doi.org/10.1186/s40623-015-0224-0