Presolar Grains in Extra-Terrestrial Materials

Sachiko Amari obtained her PhD for the noble gas study in deep-sea sediments in 1986 from Kobe University in Japan. She started working on meteorites and presolar grains when she became a postdoctoral fellow at The University of Chicago in 1988. After moving to Washington University in St. Louis in 1990, she continued studying presolar grains as well as the processes and events occurring in the early solar system. She became Research Professor of Physics at Washington University in 2008. Her research interests revolve around the formation and the early history of the solar system and beyond. She uses secondary ion mass spectrometry to study presolar grains. She is also working on trying to identify the material and the trapping mechanisms of noble gases, which will give us insight into the processes that occurred in the early solar system.

Part I: Presolar grains
1. History
2. Silicon carbide (SiC)
3. Graphite
4. Oxides and silicates
5. Diamonds
6. Refractory carbides
7. Condensations of minerals in the stellar outflow/ejecta

Part II: Stellar sources of presolar grains
8. Asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars
9. Supernovae
10. Novae