Lucas R. Smith, Author at

Author name: Lucas R. Smith

I am currently a fifth-year graduate student at the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, where I am pursuing a PhD in Planetary Science and received an M.S in the spring of 2023. While my primary research focus is on presolar grains in meteorites, I also investigate inclusions in carbonaceous chondrites that contain rare phosphide minerals, and am currently working to develop risk mitigating techniques for the preparation of FIB-sections. I am extremely grateful to have the opportunity to be a part of the OSIRIS-REx Sample Analysis Team, which has allowed me to extend my research interests to include samples of asteroid Bennu.

Stardust in Aqueously-altered Meteorites: studying presolar grains in Bennu’s analogue materials

By Lucas R. Smith | November 1, 2024 | IMCA Insights

Affiliation: Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, The University of Arizona, 1629 E University Blvd, Tucson, AZ 85721-0092, USA Presolar, or stardust, grains are small (typically nanometers to a few microns in diameter) amorphous or crystalline dust particles that condensed in the outflows of asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars and supernova explosions that predate the Sun. These grains were a part of […]

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