MOLYBDENUM ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF INDIVIDUAL PRESOLAR SILICON CARBIDE GRAINS FROM THE MURCHISON METEORITE - ISOTOPIC COMPOSITION OF NEON, XENON, SILICON, CARBON, AND NITROGEN

Abstract

We report the isotopic composition of molybdenum in twenty-three presolar SiC grains from the Murchison meteorite which have been measured by resonant ionization mass spectrometry (RIMS). Relative to terrestrial abundance (and normalized to s-process-only 96Mo), the majority of the analyzed grains show strong depletions in the p-process isotopes 92Mo and 94Mo and the r-process isotope 100Mo. Sixteen of these grains have δ-values <-600% for these three isotopes. The observed isotopic patterns of Mo from mainstream SiC grains clearly reveal the signature of s-process nucleosynthesis. Three-isotope plots of all grain data (δiMo vs. δ92Mo) show strong linear correlations with characteristic slopes. This finding suggests mixing of solar-like material and pure s-process material in the parent stars. Comparison with evolutionary calculations of nucleosynthesis and mixing in red giants suggests that low-mass thermally-pulsed symptotic giant branch (TP-AGB) stars are the most likely site for the observed s-process nucleosynthesis.