The Ed Scott Lecture Series is a tribute to Ed Scott who died in 2021. It is comprised of online lectures, each dealing with developments in a particular field of meteorite studies. The lectures will be presented for a general scientific audience so that members of the Meteoritical Society can learn about questions that drive research in areas outside their own. The series is supported by a donation from Ed’s family.
The Ed Scott Lecture Series is organized through the Membership Committee.
Connection information is provided to MetSoc members via email. Lectures are recorded and made publicly available here:
Upcoming Lecture:
Thursday 11th June at 7 pm (UTC)
Analysis of Interplanetary Dust from Kuiper Belt Objects
Lindsay Keller, NASA Johnson Space Center
Brief overview: Interplanetary dust particles (IDPs) are samples of dust-producing objects in the solar system, including many primitive and organic-rich bodies that are not sampled by known meteorites. In this talk, I will present coordinated mineralogical and isotopic analyses of individual IDPs collected in Earth's stratosphere that we can directly link to sources in the Kuiper Belt based on their solar flare track densities. The Kuiper Belt IDPs include anhydrous particles with abundant amorphous silicates and carbonaceous materials, as well as hydrated particles that contain abundant secondary minerals that provide direct evidence for past aqueous activity in Kuiper Belt objects. The O isotopic compositions of the hydrated particles suggest that the water ice was highly enriched in the heavy O isotopes.
About the presenter: Lindsay Keller is a planetary scientist and manager of the Electron Beam Analysis Labs within the Astromaterials Research and Exploration Science (ARES) Division at the NASA Johnson Space Center. Lindsay completed his Geology Ph.D. at Arizona State University in 1989. He then undertook a postdoctoral fellowship at the Johnson Space Center, followed by a period working in the private sector. He returned to Johnson Space Center in 2000. Currently, Lindsay’s research focuses on the atomic-scale mineralogy and chemistry of comets, meteorites, asteroids and lunar samples. He is also a co-investigator on the OSIRIS-REx mission to return samples of asteroid Bennu. Asteroid 133773 Lindsaykeller, is named after him.