Brownleeite is a

silicide A silicide is a type of chemical compound that combines silicon and a (usually) more electropositive element. Silicon is more electropositive than carbon. Silicides are structurally closer to borides than to carbides. Similar to borides and carb ...

mineral with

chemical formula In chemistry, a chemical formula is a way of presenting information about the chemical proportions of atoms that constitute a particular chemical compound or molecule, using chemical element symbols, numbers, and sometimes also other symbols, ...

MnSi Brownleeite is a silicide mineral with chemical formula MnSi. It was discovered by researchers of the Johnson Space Center in Houston while analyzing the Pi Puppid particle shower of the comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The only other known natural ...

. It was discovered by researchers of the

Johnson Space Center The Lyndon B. Johnson Space Center (JSC) is NASA's center for human spaceflight (originally named the Manned Spacecraft Center), where human spaceflight training, research, and flight control are conducted. It was renamed in honor of the late ...

Houston Houston (; ) is the most populous city in Texas, the most populous city in the Southern United States, the fourth-most populous city in the United States, and the sixth-most populous city in North America, with a population of 2,304,580 ...

while analyzing the Pi Puppid particle shower of the comet 26P/Grigg-Skjellerup. The only other known natural manganese silicide is

mavlyanovite Mavlyanovite is a manganese-silicon mineral with formula Mn5Si3. It was named after Gani Mavlyanov, an Uzbek geologist who lived from 1910 to 1988. Transition metal silicides represent a rich variety of intermetallic compounds with specific cry ...

, Mn₅Si₃.

Overview

The particles were collected from the

stratosphere The stratosphere () is the second layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, located above the troposphere and below the mesosphere. The stratosphere is an atmospheric layer composed of stratified temperature layers, with the warm layers of air h ...

over south-western US in April 2003 using an ER-2 high-altitude research aircraft of

NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research. NASA was established in 1958, succeedin ...

. The team of researchers from USA, Germany and Japan was led by NASA scientist

Keiko Nakamura-Messenger Keiko may refer to: *Keiko (given name), a feminine Japanese given name *Emperor Keiko *Keiko (orca), a performing killer whale best known for the film ''Free Willy'' ** "Keiko" (song), a single by Lucerito dedicated to Keiko the orca *Keiko (music ...

. To determine the mineral's origin and examine other dust materials, a new transmission electron microscope was installed in 2005 at Johnson Space Center. The mineral name was approved by the

International Mineralogical Association Founded in 1958, the International Mineralogical Association (IMA) is an international group of 40 national societies. The goal is to promote the science of mineralogy and to standardize the nomenclature of the 5000 plus known mineral species. Th ...

(IMA Number 2008-011). The NASA scientists named the mineral after

Donald E. Brownlee Donald Eugene Brownlee (born December 21, 1943) is a professor of astronomy at the University of Washington at Seattle and the principal investigator for NASA's Stardust mission. In 2000, along with his co-author Peter Ward, he co-originated t ...

, professor of astronomy at the

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW, simply Washington, or informally U-Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington. Founded in 1861, Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast; it was established in Seatt ...

, Seattle, because of his pioneering research on interplanetary dust particles.Universe Today June 12, 2008: Alien Mineral From Comet Dust Found in Earth's Atmosphere
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References

External links

* {{Manganese minerals Manganese(IV) minerals Native element minerals Cubic minerals Minerals in space group 198 Minerals described in 2010

Overview

See also

References

External links