Lugaro M. Stardust from Meteorites: An Introduction to Presolar Grains

New Jersey: World Scientific. – 2005. – 223 p. Although the analysis of stellar grains is a very young field - it was born in 1987 ~ much has already been achieved, especially since recent advances in laboratory techniques have allowed to perform analysis of grains of size smaller than a micrometer, and high-precision measurements of the composition of elements present in trace in the grains. The aim of this book is to present issues related to stellar grains in an accessible way, thus helping students and scientists at all levels and of all backgrounds to learn about this field. Indeed, a broad awareness about stellar grain research and its implications is still lacking in the astronomy community at large, mainly because the subject is so new, and different when compared to anything that has been studied before. Both researchers and students need a broad basic knowledge and a clear presentation of the tools needed to familiarise themselves with presolar grains. The book is divided into six chapters, of which the first three provide an overview of the topic and of related basic information. The following three chapters are, instead, more specific and thus represent a more complex reading. They can be used to deepen the understanding of the origin of the different types of grains, and of the different types of information that it is possible to extract in relation to nucleosynthesis processes in stars. Each chapter is equipped with a set of exercises, of which detailed solutions are given in Appendix B. Appendix A provides the reader with a general simple glossary, which should be useful to consult to clarify a word or expression, while reading the main text, or to remind oneself of their meaning. A set of selected references are given in Appendix CMeteoritic Presolar Grains and Their Significance
Basics of Stellar Nucleosynthesis
Laboratory Analysis of Presolar Grains
The Origin of Presolar Sic Grains
Heavy Elements in Presolar SIC Grains
Diamond. Graphite and Oxide GrainsSolutions to Exercises
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