2023-24 Nininger Meteorite Award Winners
We are pleased to announce that Maizey Benner, a Ph.D. Candidate at the University of Arizona is the recipient of the 2023-24 Nininger Meteorite Award, and Daniel Sheikh, a Ph.D. candidate at Portland State University received an Honorable Mention for the award.
Maizey’s paper “Microstructural analysis of phosphorus (P)-bearing assemblages in type 3 chondrites: Implications for P condensation and processing in the early solar nebula” addresses the chemical behavior of phosphorous in chondritic meteorites and in samples returned by the Hayabusa2 mission. She has been using a combination of electron- and ion-beam techniques in the Kuiper-Arizona Laboratory for Astromaterials Analysis (K-ALFAA) to study P-bearing materials in petrologic type-1 through type-3 carbonaceous and ordinary chondrites, and thermodynamic modeling and density functional theory to better understand the materials formation conditions. Maizey’s results show that the major P carriers in petrologic type-3 chondrites are merrillite, schreibersite, and P-bearing metal that likely formed through a combination of melt crystallization and vapor-phase condensation in the early solar system. Her work includes a new thermodynamic description of the schreibersite solid solution, which reveals a miscibility gap between Ni-rich schreibersite and Ni3P.
Photo: Nininger Meteorite Awardee Maizey Benner
Sheik’s paper, “Ground truth” occurrence of Pink Spinel Anorthosite (PSA) as clasts in lunar meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 15500: Chemical evidence for a genetic relationship with lunar highlands Mg-suite and formation by magma–wallrock interactions” provides strong evidence for secondary magmatic processes on the Moon, after the establishment of the anorthositic crust. An interaction is required between the anorthositic crust and a magnesian melt component, likely Mg-suite-magma rich in olivine.
Photo: Daniel Sheikh, Nininger Meteorite Award Honorable Mention
