Abstract
AbstractUltimately, all of the solids in the Solar System, including ourselves, consist of elements that were made in stars by stellar nucelosynthesis. However, most of the material from many different stellar sources that went into the making of the Solar System was thoroughly mixed, obliterating any information about its origin. An exception are tiny grains of preserved stardust found in primitive meteorites, micrometeorites, and interplanetary dust particles. These μm- and sub-μm-sized presolar grains are recognized as stardust by their isotopic compositions, which are completely different from those of the Solar System. They condensed in outflows from late-type stars and in SN ejecta and were included in meteorites, from which they can be isolated and studied for their isotopic compositions in the laboratory. Thus these grains constitute a link between us and our stellar ancestors. They provide new information on stellar evolution, nucleosynthesis, mixing processes in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and supernovae, and galactic chemical evolution. Red giants, AGB stars, Type II supernovae, and possibly novae have been identified as stellar sources of the grains. Stardust phases identified so far include silicates, oxides such as corundum, spinel, and hibonite, graphite, silicon carbide, silicon nitride, titanium carbide, and Fe-Ni metal.
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