This project will study microscopic stardust grains in the laboratory to find answers to the most fundamental question of the origin of elements in the Universe and to understand the properties of the materials that formed our solar system. The results from this study promise to bring about a potentially transformative understanding of how heavy elements are created in supernovae and some lesser-known exotic stars that contributed starter materials to our solar system. The fellowship project will allow the PI to develop a long-term collaboration with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory that will enable her to establish a productive and reputable cosmochemistry laboratory that excels in a highly interdisciplinary field and contribute to the new Earth and Energy Sciences multidisciplinary PhD program at the University of Louisiana Lafayette. A successful project will enable her to obtain state-of-the-art analytical equipment at her university; thus, increasing the PI’s collaborations with interdisciplinary scientists across the state of Louisiana and the world. This grant will also be used to mentor and train an underrepresented PhD student in cutting edge analytical techniques that can be used in pure research and/or numerous industrial applications; thus, contributing to the imperative effort of increasing diversity in STEM fields.
Stardust grains are bona fide microscopic to sub-microscopic pieces of stars that condensed in the cooling ejecta of dying stars and pre-date the formation of our solar system. The main goal of this project is to probe s-, r-, p-, and i-processes that make heavy nuclei in stars, via nucleosynthesis, by studying these signatures in stardust grains. This understanding will not only provide tighter constraints on the nucleosynthesis models of these stars but also to the thermodynamic and kinetic evolution models that aim to construct a clear picture of the chemical and physical circumstellar environments in which these stardust grains condensed. With the aid of this fellowship, the PI will gain extended access to the new, state-of-the-art, Laser Ionization of Neutrals (LION) resonant ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS) facility at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) and collaborate with the scientist-in-charge. LION allows the PI and her graduate student to systematically measure isotopic compositions of heavy trace elements in individual micron-sized graphitic stardust grains from supernovae and grains with i-process signatures. RIMS is a powerful technique to measure heavy isotopes as it selectively ionizes elements of interest and eliminates isobaric interferences. The PI and her graduate student will spend time during the year preparing the presolar graphitic samples at the home institution and then travel to LLNL to acquire measurements on grains. In order to characterize the grains according to their stellar sources, the data obtained will be compared to astrophysical nucleosynthesis models through collaborations with theoretical astrophysicists.
This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.
