APPLICATIONS OF ACCELERATOR MASS-SPECTROMETRY IN EXTRATERRESTRIAL MATERIALS

Accelerator mass spectrometry has made it possible to measure the concentrations of Al-26, Be-10, C-14, Cl-36, Ca-41, Ni-59, and I-129 in a large number of extraterrestrial samples, mainly because of the small sample mass requirements of the technique. This brief review emphasizes recent (1990-1993) applications of AMS to extraterrestrial problems including the terrestrial ages of meteorites; the production rates of cosmogenic radionuclides; the non-linear effects of chemical composition on production rates; the history of solar cosmic rays; the exposure histories, both simple and complex, of meteorites; and the behavior of a large projectile (the Canyon Diablo iron meteorite) during impact.