Anomaly in the Spectrum of Galactic Cosmic Ray Nuclei in Olivine Crystals from Meteorites

G. V. Kalinina, Than Naing Soe & N. I. Starkov

Physics of Atomic Nuclei, Volume 84, pages 849–854 (2021)
Published: 29 December 2021

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“An anomaly in the spectra of galactic cosmic ray nuclei in olivine crystals from meteorites that arises in the charge spectra upon studying crystals situated near the meteorite edge is investigated. As a meteorite falls, traversing the Earth’s atmosphere, its surface is strongly heated. The dynamics of heating of meteorite matter is studied, a solution of the heat-propagation equation is proposed, and its simulation is performed in the Borland C++ builder medium. The heating of pallasite matter throughout the meteorite fall time is estimated. It is shown that the temperature of olivine crystals near the meteorite surface may become higher than 1300 oC, and this may lead to the annealing of tracks. Because of the annealing effect, some tracks disappear, while others change their geometric features. This may explain an unusual shape of the charge distribution of nuclei found in olivine crystals near the meteorite edge.”