Abundances of presolar graphite and SiC from supernovae and AGB stars in the Murchison meteorite

Abstract

Pesolar graphite grains exhibit a range of densities (1.65 - 2.20 g/cm 3). We investigated abundances of presolar graphite grains formed in supernovae and in asymptotic giant branch (AGB) stars in the four density fractions KE3, KFA1, KFB1 and KFC1 extracted from the Murchison meteorite to probe dust productions in these stellar sources. Seventy-six and 50% of the grains in the low-density fractions KE3 and KFA1, respectively, are supernova grains, while only 7.2% and 0.9% of the grains in the high-density fractions KFB1 and KFC1 have a supernova origin. Grains of AGB star origin are concentrated in the high-density fractions KFB1 and KFC1. From the C isotopic distributions of these fractions and the presence of s-process Kr with 86Kr/82Kr=4.43±0.46 in KFC1, we estimate that 76% and 80% of the grains in KFB1 and KFC1, respectively, formed in AGB stars. From the abundance of graphite grains in the Murchison meteorite, 0.88 ppm, the abundances of graphite from supernovae and AGB stars are 0.24 ppm and 0.44 ppm, respectively: the abundances of graphite in supernovae and AGB stars are comparable. In contrast, it has been known that 1% of SiC grains formed in supernovae and 95% formed in AGB stars in meteorites. Since the abundance of SiC grains is 5.85 ppm in the Murchison meteorite, the abundances of SiC from supernovae and AGB stars are 0.063 ppm and 5.6 ppm, respectively: the dominant source of SiC grains is AGB stars. Since SiC grains are harder and likely to survive better in space than graphite grains, the abundance of supernova graphite grains, which is higher than that of supernova SiC grains, indicates that supernovae proficiently produce graphite grains. Graphite grains from AGB stars are, in contrast, less abundant that SiC grains from AGB stars (0.44 ppm vs. 5.6 ppm). It is difficult to derive firm conclusions for graphite and SiC formation in AGB stars due to the difference in susceptibility to grain destruction. Metallicity of the parent AGB stars of graphite grains is much lower than that of SiC grains and the difference in metallicity might also have affected to the difference in the abundances in the Murchison meteorite. © 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.