Presolar stardust in the solar system: Recent advances for nuclear astrophysics

Abstract

Grains of presolar stardust are identified in extraterrestrial materials on the basis of highly anomalous isotopic compositions. These compositions reflect those of the stellar gases from which they condensed more than 4.5 billion years ago and serve as detailed probes of nuclear processes in space including Galactic chemical evolution, nucleosynthesis and mixing processes in stars. A large number of presolar phases have now been identified, including various oxides, silicates, carbides and elemental carbon, with apparent origins in red giants, asymptotic giant branch stars, supernovae and perhaps novae. This paper provides some illustrative examples of how presolar stardust provides new insights for nuclear astrophysics. © Copyright owned by the author(s) under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlikeLicence.