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Reply to: GEMS and the devil in their details

Nature Astronomy volume 3, page 606 (2019)Cite this article

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The Original Article was published on 05 July 2019

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replying to J. P. Bradley Nature Astronomy https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0833-9 (2019)

In his critique, Bradley1 has chosen to focus not on the central argument of our Article but on a narrow question of whether or not we have provided sufficient experimental data to justify the use of the term GEMS, that is, glass with embedded metal and sulfides. Our Article2 provided several independent lines of evidence that the C-rich clast we found in LaPaz Icefield 02342 is xenolithic in nature and likely related to putative cometary materials like anhydrous chondritic porous interplanetary dust particles (CP-IDPs) and ultracarbonaceous Antarctic micrometeorites (UCAMMs). Thus, the most important conclusion of our paper that the properties of the C-rich clast demonstrate mixing of materials accreted to asteroids and comets in the outer solar nebula stands without question. Nevertheless, we find it important to address Bradley’s specific concerns regarding the identification of GEMS in LaPaz Icefield 02342.

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References

  1. Bradley, J. P. GEMS and the devil in their details. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0833-9 (2019).

  2. Nittler, L. R. et al. A cometary building block in a primitive asteroidal meteorite. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0737-8 (2019).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington DC, USA

    Larry R. Nittler, Conel M. O’D. Alexander & Jemma Davidson

  2. Materials Science and Technology Division, Code 6366, US Naval Research Laboratory, Washington DC, USA

    Rhonda M. Stroud & Bradley T. De Gregorio

  3. Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences Group, Institute of Space Sciences, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez, Carles E. Moyano-Cambero & Safoura Tanbakouei

  4. Institut d’Estudis Espacials de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

    Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez, Carles E. Moyano-Cambero & Safoura Tanbakouei

  5. Center for Meteorite Studies, School of Earth and Space Exploration, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, USA

    Jemma Davidson

Authors
  1. Larry R. Nittler
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  2. Rhonda M. Stroud
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  3. Josep M. Trigo-Rodríguez
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  4. Bradley T. De Gregorio
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  5. Conel M. O’D. Alexander
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  7. Carles E. Moyano-Cambero
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  8. Safoura Tanbakouei
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Contributions

The manuscript was written by L.R.N. and R.M.S. with input from all of the other authors.

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Correspondence to Larry R. Nittler.

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Nittler, L.R., Stroud, R.M., Trigo-Rodríguez, J.M. et al. Reply to: GEMS and the devil in their details. Nat Astron 3, 606 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-019-0834-8

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