Color rendering of a high resolution X-ray CT scan of meteorite fragment SM73 done at CMGI
Doug Rowland at the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging has been part of an international team studying the Sutter’s Mill Meteorite that fell in the Sierra Foothills on April 22, 2012. The meteorite caused a sensation because it offers a window into the time our solar system was being formed. The Sutter’s Mill meteorite is made of a rare type of carbonaceous chondrite in the CM class which contains cosmic dust and presolar material, and is rich in organic material. The meteorite formed 4.5 billion years ago and is the oldest material that can be found on earth.
The Sutter’s Mill meteorite fragments have been analyzed using many different tools, including high resolution X-ray CT scans using the Xradia MicroXCT-200 located at the Center for Molecular and Genomic Imaging (CMGI), located in the Biomedical Engineering Department at UC Davis. Data obtained at CMGI for Qing-Zhu Yin (Geology) is part of a Science publication released on Dec. 21st (P. Jenniskens et al. Science. Vol. 338, December 21, 2012, p. 1583).
Videos showing the X-ray CT imaging done at CMGI are located here: http://youtu.be/WWCakKVwae0 and here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JoLM0q9vwvI.
Download the Science article here: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/338/6114/1583.full
Methods supplement: http://www.sciencemag.org/content/suppl/2012/12/19/338.6114.1583.DC1
http://www.youtube.com/user/YinLabatUCDavis
http://news.ucdavis.edu/search/news_detail.lasso?id=10440&fu=122112
