Micrometeorites and the Mysteries of Our Origins

Staging the Cosmic Theater.- Solar System Bodies and "Primitiveness".- The Power of Wetherill's Friend, Jupiter.- The Earth-Moon System in a Gigantic Cosmic "Firing" Range.- A Microscopic Suspect for the Formation of the Earth's Atmosphere.- "Primitive" Extraterrestrial Matter on the Earth.- The Space Collector "Earth".- Classification of Meteorites and Micrometeorites.- The Major Contribution of Micrometeorites to the Delivery of Hydrous-Carbonaceous Material to the Earth.- Formation of the Post-Lunar Earth's Atmosphere.- The Inadequacy of Previous Scenarios.- A Prime Suspect for the Formation of the Atmosphere.- Formation of the Post-lunar Atmosphere.- The Mysterious Fate of Early Micrometeoritic Oxygen.- Exobiology with Unmelted Micrometeorites.- The Birth of Life on the Early Earth.- Microscopic Chondritic Chemical Reactors.- Radiation Reprocessing of Organics by Energetic Ions in Space.- Micrometeorite Ashes in Exobiology and Early Climatology.- First Hints.- Micrometeorite and Minimeteorite Ashes in Prebiotic Chemistry.- Micrometeorites in the Post-lunar Greenhouse Effect.- Micrometeorites in Comparative Planetology.- Micrometeoritic Iridium in the Earth's Mantle with the Hartmann Conjuncture.- Micrometeoritic Neon on the Earth.- The Micrometeoritic Purity of the Atmosphere and Early Earth's Processes.- Extrapolation of EMMA to the Moon and Mars.- Parent Bodies of Micrometeorites and Early Solar System Processes.- The "Hunt" for Micrometeorites Parent Bodies.- No Consensus About the Early History of the Lunar Impact Flux.- Micrometeorites and Early Solar System Processes.- Challenges Ahead.- Relationships with CM-type Chondrites.- The Enigmatic Differences between Stratospheric and Antarctic Micrometeorites.- The World of Hidden Biases: From Collection to Sample Processing.- Stardust Attacks in Bob Laboratory for Space Sciences.- Challenges Still to Be Appropriately Addressed.- Science and Fiction.- Summary.- Epilogue: The Birth of "Micrometeoritics".