Extraterrestrial matter – Early Earth – Early life

– The QESA (Quarantine Extraterrestrial Sample Analysis) project (CNES R&T project 2017-2021, CDP COOL IDEX project 2018-2021) prepares for the extraterrestrial Sample Return Missions (Hayabusa II – JAXA, Osiris-Rex, Mars-2031, Phobos – NASA) and aims for their non-destructive, non-invasive analyses under quarantine.

We will perform simultaneous hyperspectral fluorescence/diffraction measurements, complemented by successive 3D tomography and 2D/3D speciation, in a sample holder for which an European patent was obtained in collaboration with the CNES, under planetary protection BSL4 conditions. Lab-based measurements have also been provided for in our Extraterrestrial Sample Holder, using Raman/IR microscopies. These measurements will go beyond the elemental composition and crystallinity of the grains, their 3D morphology as well as their local chemistry by providing their mineralogy, their water content as well as their organic/inorganic C compounds load. The measurements will be performed through windows in the nested containers, under controlled pressures and temperatures.

– Early Earth, Early life: For the past 18 years we have studied earliest life inception (Barberton greenstone belt) and photosynthesis (Gunflint cherts) by X-ray nano-imaging of stromatolite fossils. An ongoing collaboration with Pr. A. Hofmann from Univ. of Johannesburg (South Africa) has started last year on best preserved Archean fossils of ca. 3.4 Gy, as well as putative older fossils from the East India craton. These studies are part of the CDP-Cool UGA IDEX project in which we aim for the characterization of the Origin of Life on Earth in relation to extraterrestrial life search in the Solar system on returned samples from Mars and asteroids, and on the establishing of biosignature candidates for exoplanetary life search.

– Diversity of the small bodies in the Solar system, using the terrestrial micrometeorite record over the last 1 Myr (Antarctica collections). Answering this question requires that the chemical, isotopic and physical modifications during atmospheric entry are first quantified. This project implies collaborations with University of Pisa (Italy) and Vrije University of Brussels (Belgium)

Contacts:
– A. Simionovici
– E. Lewin
– C. Cordier
– L. Truche
– F. Brunet