Applications of the nuclear microprobe in planetary science

Nuclear microprobes have been used in a variety of studies on extra-terrestrial materials. Although by far the most used analytical technique is micro-PIXE, valuable contributions have also been given to planetary science using other methods available among the suite of analytical techniques provided by the microprobe. Also a few studies of the application of synchrotron radiation to planetary science has been published. Research aims are either to get a full analysis of very small objects such as cosmic dust or to extract elemental profiles over areas of interest. In the latter case, these distributions may give insight into the temperature history of the objects studied. In this way single crystals, chondrules in ordinary chondrites but also phase transitions in iron-meteorites have been investigated. Being by far the oldest objects available for research and being conserved for billions of years without serious wearing and erosion as would happen on earth, their detailed studies provide knowledge about the early history of the solar system and on primary geological processes. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science B.V.