| Abstract Scope |
Meteorites are perhaps one of the most tangible aspects of outer space. The internal microstructure and composition of meteorites has been intensively studied and classified by astro- and geo-chemists to study their origins and formation processes. However, other than some microhardness testing in the 1950s, very little has been done to characterize their mechanical behavior. With the advent of modern, high speed nanoindentation techniques, it is now possible to map the mechanical features of materials over square millimeters of area with micron-level resolution in a reasonable amount of time. Using statistical analysis, the properties of each of these phases can be extracted. By combining this information with EDX maps, the relationship between composition and properties of the various phases can be quantified.
In this work, high speed nanoindentation is combined with energy-dispersive X-ray spectroscopy (EDX) to map the mechanical properties of a variety of different nickel-iron meteorites. |