新的原子研究是首次對月球樣本進行研究

新的原子研究是首次對月球樣本進行研究

Lunar samples collected by Apollo missions are a precious thing, with some specifically kept sealed for future studies – or at least until we can go back to the moon to collect some more. Now researchers have used a new technique to get as much data as possible from a single grain.

阿波羅任務(wù)收集到的月球樣本是一件珍貴的東西，其中一些是專門為未來的研究而保存的——或者至少在我們可以回到月球收集更多樣本之前?，F(xiàn)在研究人員使用一種新技術(shù)從一粒谷物中獲取盡可能多的數(shù)據(jù)。

As reported in Meteoritics & Planetary Science, researchers at the Field Museum in Chicago used atom probe tomography (APT), a technique that's usually used by material scientists to look at how to improve industrial processes that make steel and nanowires. The method allowed the team to carve out a small grain of moondust just a few hundred atoms wide from the sample. They then used a laser to bump off atoms one by one in order to analyze the sample's composition and the origin of the atoms.

據(jù)《隕星學(xué)與行星科學(xué)》雜志報道，芝加哥菲爾德博物館的研究人員使用了原子探測器斷層掃描(APT)技術(shù)，這種技術(shù)通常被材料科學(xué)家用來研究如何改進制造鋼鐵和納米線的工業(yè)過程。這種方法使研究小組能夠從樣本中分離出一小粒月球塵埃，距離樣本只有幾百個原子。然后他們用激光一個一個地撞擊原子，以分析樣品的組成和原子的來源。

Alfredo Carpineti

“We're analyzing rocks from space, atom by atom,” first author Jennika Greer, a graduate researcher at the Field Museum and the University of Chicago, said in a statement. “It's the first time a lunar sample has been studied like this. We're using a technique many geologists haven't even heard of.”

“我們正在一個原子一個原子地分析來自太空的巖石，”第一作者詹妮卡·格里爾在一份聲明中說，她是菲爾德博物館和芝加哥大學(xué)的研究生研究員。“這是首次對月球樣本進行這樣的研究。我們正在使用一種許多地質(zhì)學(xué)家甚至從未聽說過的技術(shù)。”

The technique allows the researchers to compare the commonalities and differences between the weathered surface soil and the unexposed lunar regolith. No other method can recreate the atomic composition of a sample in three dimensions and still be used for future studies. This allowed them to identify products of space weathering, including water, helium, and iron. Knowing the amount of these resources could help researchers plan for a future permanent base on the Moon.

這項技術(shù)使研究人員能夠比較風(fēng)化的表層土壤和未暴露的月球風(fēng)化層之間的共性和差異。沒有其他的方法可以在三維中重建樣品的原子組成，并且仍然用于未來的研究。這使他們能夠識別太空風(fēng)化的產(chǎn)物，包括水、氦和鐵。了解這些資源的數(shù)量可以幫助研究人員規(guī)劃未來在月球上的永久基地。

"We can apply this technique to samples no one has studied," co-author professor Philipp Heck added. "You're almost guaranteed to find something new or unexpected. This technique has such high sensitivity and resolution, you find things you wouldn't find otherwise and only use up a small bit of the sample."

“我們可以把這項技術(shù)應(yīng)用到?jīng)]有人研究過的樣本上，”合著者菲利普·赫克教授補充道。“你幾乎肯定會發(fā)現(xiàn)一些新的或意想不到的東西。這種技術(shù)有很高的靈敏度和分辨率，你可以找到你在其他地方找不到的東西，而且只需要用掉一小部分樣本。”

But it is not just lunar soil. Over the next few years, two missions will bring back pristine samples from asteroids, including the first subsurface sample.

但這不僅僅是月球土壤。在接下來的幾年里，將有兩項任務(wù)從小行星帶回原始樣本，包括第一個地下樣本。

"It's great for comprehensively characterizing small volumes of precious samples," Greer said. "We have these really exciting missions like Hayabusa2 and OSIRIS-REx returning to Earth soon – uncrewed spacecraft collecting tiny pieces of asteroids. This is a technique that should definitely be applied to what they bring back because it uses so little material but provides so much information."

格里爾說:“這對全面鑒定少量珍貴樣本非常有用。”“我們有這些非常激動人心的任務(wù)，比如隼鳥2號和奧西里斯-雷克斯號很快返回地球，無人駕駛的宇宙飛船收集小行星的微小碎片。這種技術(shù)肯定應(yīng)該應(yīng)用到他們帶回的東西上，因為它用的材料很少，但提供的信息卻很多。”

NASA has provided funds to the Field Museum for three more years of lunar sample analysis using APT to work out the water content and the space weathering of several different Apollo samples.

美國國家航空航天局為菲爾德博物館提供了資金，用于三年多的月球樣本分析，利用APT計算出不同的阿波羅樣本的含水量和太空風(fēng)化率。