Exploring meteoritic fragments with microscopy and spectroscopy techniques

Carbonaceous chondritic meteorites are ancient materials from the earliest times of our Solar System, and thus, these objects can provide valuable information about how planets formed. These meteorites are composed of micro/millimeter-sized inclusions surrounded by a matrix of microparticles. The study of the physical properties (e.g., structure, composition and morphology) of these constituents can give evidence of the conditions (e.g., thermal, temporal and barometric) in which the materials found in the meteoritic samples developed in our Solar System. These physical properties can be studied using different experimental and analytical methods. In this work, we use microscopy and spectroscopy techniques, such as Raman spectroscopy, optical microscopy and atomic force microscopy, to study several properties of carbonaceous meteorites (e.g., mineralogical composition and topography at the micro and nanoscale). In particular, we analyze two meteoritic fragments: Northwest Africa (NWA) 7184 and Aguas Zarcas. We explore numerous regions of individual inclusions, surrounding matrix and inclusion-matrix interface. We correlate our results to look for clues about the origin of these extraterrestrial materials.