Understanding Our Protoplanetary Disk by Chemical Analysis of Components in Meteorites

Abstract

This thesis has explored the capability of novel high resolution in situ analyses such as Synchrotron radiation, atom probe microscopy and transmission kikuchi diffraction in the analyses of primitive meteorites. Crystallographic, geochemical and isotopic data extracted using these techniques from refractory metal nuggets in primitive meteorites has implications for our understanding of how these grains formed, particle migration in the protoplanetary disk, and a suggestion that refractory metal nuggets may have a pre-solar origin.