Project BAMM (Belgian Antarctic Meteorites and Micrometeorites to document solar system) proposes to study meteorites collected in Antarctica and determine their origins.

With constant improvements in analysis technologies, samples can be measured more and more accurately, requiring increasingly small quantities. Project BAMM (Belgian Antarctic Meteorites and Micrometeorites to document solar system) proposes to study two groups of Antarctic samples: micrometeorites collected in the Sør Rondane mountains, and meteorites collected on the Nansen ice shelf (East Antarctica).

In-depth analyses of micrometeorites and their igneous texture will help determine their origins, as some of them come from asteroids that were never sampled through meteorites. The differences between unmelted micrometeorites and fully melted meteorites will also be investigated, in order to better understand the initial stages of metal-silicate segregation. Regarding meteorites, project BAMM will look into nucleosynthetic anomalies found in certain types of meteorites: researchers will attempt to identify, using in situ measurements, what mineral phases are present and how they are destroyed though metamorphic processes in asteroids.

Project BAMM is led by the Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences, in partnership with VUB and ULB (Vinciane Debaille, ‘G-Time’ unit).

End of the project: 15/04/2021

Dates
Created on August 29, 2018