Published December 2, 1971 | Version public
Journal Article

Neutron capture on ¹⁴⁹Sm in lunar samples

Abstract

High precision isotopic composition measurements of Sm have been carried out for two terrestrial and seven lunar samples from three Apollo sites. The lunar samples, selected to show a wide variation in cosmic ray exposure ages, have a wide range of enrichments in ¹⁵⁰Sm/¹⁵⁴Sm (up to 0.8%) and depletions in ¹⁴⁹Sm/¹⁵⁴Sm which are due to neutron capture. The ratio of the number of neutrons captured per atom by ¹⁴⁹Sm to ¹⁵⁷Gd is 0.9 and reflects a hardened lunar neutron spectrum. This ratio is in reasonable but not exact agreement with that obtained from the theoretical lunar neutron energy spectrum of Lingenfelter, Canfield and Hampel. The average composition for terrestrial samarium is ¹⁴⁴Sm : ¹⁴⁷Sm : ¹⁴⁸Sm : ¹⁴⁹Sm : ¹⁵⁰Sm : ¹⁵²Sm : ¹⁵⁴Sm = 3.074 : 14.995 : 11.243 : 13.820 : 7.380 : 26.739 : 22.749%.

Additional Information

Discussions with F. Tera and J. Huneke were very beneficial. This work was supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant GP-28027 and in part by NASA Contract NGL-05-002-188. One of us (G.P.R.) is supported by a National Defense Education Act, Title IV, Fellowship and his wife.

Additional details

Additional titles

Alternative title
Neutron capture on 149Sm in lunar samples

Identifiers

Eprint ID
117918
Resolver ID
CaltechAUTHORS:20221121-280779900.3

Funding

NSF
GP-28027
NASA
NGL-05-002-188
National Defense Science and Engineering Graduate (NDSEG) Fellowship

Dates

Created
2022-11-29
Created from EPrint's datestamp field
Updated
2022-11-29
Created from EPrint's last_modified field

Caltech Custom Metadata

Caltech groups
Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences (GPS)
Other Numbering System Name
Caltech Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences
Other Numbering System Identifier
2067