APOD: 2022 November 13 - Flying Saucer Crash Lands in Utah Desert

Good morning, Rallypoint, and welcome to the November 13th edition of Astronomy Picture of the Day (APOD): "Flying Saucer Crash Lands in Utah Desert." Genesis was launched in 2001 to collect particles of the solar wind and return them to Earth. The original plan was for a parachute to deploy after the spacecraft re-entered the Earth's atmosphere, and that helicopters would catch it in mid-air. This image (from 2004) shows that it didn't end well.

The recovery crews took what was left back to the lab and went to work. Using cleaning techniques developed for semiconductor manufacturing. some data was able to be recovered. One of the more interesting findings from this data dealt with the isotopic concentrations of nitrogen we see on Earth.

Why nitrogen? The elements nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur (N-C-H-S) are used by scientists to suggest how planets form, why they are different, and if they might be habitable. Past data indicates that nitrogen directly impacts the presence of the other three in a given sample. Concentrations of the two basic isotopes of nitrogen (Nitrogen-14 and Nitrogen-15) vary dramatically across the Solar System despite little variation on Earth. Generally, nitrogen-15 enrichment is observed the further away one gets from the Sun. Genesis data supported this, as little nitrogen-15 was found in the returned samples. In comparison, Earth's atmosphere is greatly enriched with nitrogen-15, yet diamonds from deep within the Earth more closely resemble what was recovered from Genesis. What could account for this difference?

One theory suggests a series of impact events by different types of meteorites are responsible for the balance between nitrogen, carbon, hydrogen, and sulfur we see here. The different classes of meteorites have their own N-C-H-S ratios. By analyzing the different classes of meteorites, scientists created a model that rendered comparable N-C-H-S measurements when compared to diamonds, the crust, the mantle, and the atmosphere...and the data found aboard a flying saucer that crashed in the Utah desert. A cosmic cookbook perhaps.