Exposure history of individual cosmic particles

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Abstract

We have measured cosmogenic 10Be and 26Al in a suite of stony cosmic spherules derived from deep-sea sediments and the Greenland ice cap. These spherules show clear evidence of exposure to GCR (galactic cosmic ray) and SCR (solar cosmic ray) bombardment on time scales from a few times 105 years up to as much as 107 years. The exposure took place in the inner solar system, not in highly eccentric orbits. When they reached the earth the particles were not much larger than their present size, but it is not excluded that most of their cosmic ray exposure took place very close to the surface of an asteroidal body.

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