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Cosmic ray produced nitrogen in extra terrestrial matter

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Abstract

Production rates of15N by both solar cosmic rays (SCR) and galactic cosmic rays (GCR) have been calculated for moon, as well as meteorites of various sizes. Our production rates of15N which considered both the reaction channels16O(p, pn)15O and16O(p, 2p)15N separately are about 30% higher than those by Reedy (1981) who considered only the channel16O(p, pn)15O and used an empirical scaling factor to estimate the contribution from16O(p, 2p)15N. Production ratio15N21 Ne is composition dependent and hence is different for various silicate minerals. Additionally the ratio15N/21Ne is very sensitive to the energy spectrum of the cosmic rays. This fact can be made use of in characterizing as well as in decoupling the SCR and GCR effects in extraterrestrial samples.

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  1. K. J. Mathew

    Present address: Max-Planck Institut fur Chemie Saarstrasse 23, 55020, Mainz, Germany

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  1. Physical Research Laboratory, 380 009, Ahmedabad, India

    K. J. Mathew & S. V. S. Murty

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Mathew, K.J., Murty, S.V.S. Cosmic ray produced nitrogen in extra terrestrial matter. Proc. Indian Acad. Sci. (Earth Planet Sci.) 102, 415–437 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02841731

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