Abstract
Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs), collected in the Earth's stratosphere, have been a subject of intense laboratory studies for the last ten years. A significant proportion of collected IDPs has a composition close to the solar (or chondritic) elemental abundance. This paper reviews results of mineralogical, petrological and chemical studies of the chondritic IDPs. Experimental studies on mineralogy, infrared absorption spectra, and isotopic properties of the chondritic IDPs have suggested that they are primitive and may contain records of the early solar system and possibly of events that predate it. Specific mineralogical and chemical features provide indications of processes including direct condensation from the solar nebula, hydrocarbon formation in the nebula, and aqueous alteration in water-rich parent bodies. Of particular interest are the mineralogical and chemical relationships between IDPs and carbonaceous chondrites. Data of both IDPs and carbonaceous chondrites have accumulated, and it is now possible to compare the mineralogies of the IDPs and the meteorites in considerable detail. Important points of information and their implications for the origin of IDPs are discussed. The current knowledge of mineralogy and chemistry of IDPs suggests that most hydrated IDPs were derived from asteroids and most anhydrous IDPs were derived from comets.
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