Microstructural characterization and mechanical behavior of Aba Panu meteorite by correlative microscopy and nanoindentation

Abstract

Meteorite samples that land on earth can provide important information about asteroid and meteors found in space. Thorough, multimodal, and multiscale microstructural analysis is necessary to provide clues about the formation history of these materials. Both 3D x-ray tomography and scanning electron microscopy, along with energy dispersive spectroscopy, were used to obtain detailed structural information from the Aba Panu meteorite. EDS was utilized to obtain elemental composition and identify existing minerals in the meteorite. The microstructural analysis enabled a proposed hypothesis of potential local structure formation processes supported by phase diagrams of the existing minerals. Mechanical properties of identified phases were measured using nanoindentation and Vickers hardness testing. By combining structural, compositional, and mechanical results, a comprehensive characterization and discussion of meteorite Aba Panu was obtained.