Changes to the composition and mineralogy of interplanetary dust particles by terrestrial encounters

Individual interplanetary dust particles can experience alteration or contamination by a variety of mechanisms during Earth encounter. Velocity selection effects produce a stratospheric dust population different from the interplanetary dust population. The thermal pulse experienced during Earth atmospheric entry is, in some cases, sufficient to alter the mineralogical and chemical properties of the interplanetary dust recovered from the Earth’s stratosphere. Stratospheric residence or the collection and curation process is known to produce a surface contamination of S and possibly other elements. A thorough understanding of the nature and magnitude of these contamination and alteration processes is essential if the properties of the interplanetary dust, and of the parent bodies of the dust and of the primitive solar nebula, are to be inferred.