The University of Wisconsin SIMS lab (WiscSIMS) supports investigators conducting planetary science research under Planetary Science Enabling Facilities (PSEF) Program, NASA Planetary Science Division (PSD), in a similar way to the NSF Facility Program. 10% of the WiscSIMS instrument time will be available to external NASA Planetary Science and broader community.
The performance of WiscSIMS IMS 1280 has been significantly improved by multiple commercial upgrades and in-house modifications, so that the instrument is capable of obtaining the world’s highest precision and accuracy data for oxygen 3-isotope analyses and Al-Mg chronology of extraterrestrial samples, such as Ca, Al-rich inclusions and chondrules in primitive meteorites, micrometeorites, interplanetary dust particles, comet Wild 2, and asteroid return samples. The highest precision of ≤0.3‰ (2SD) in oxygen 3-isotope ratios is obtained for silicate, oxide, and carbonates using ~10 µm spot sizes, while ≤2‰ precisions are achieved for a 2 µm small spot size. The precision of inferred (26Al/27Al)0 for CAIs and chondrules is better than 10% and 10-20%, corresponding to the precisions of relative ages of ≤0.1 Ma and 0.1-0.2 Ma, respectively. The results of SIMS analyses are crucial for understanding the sources and evolution of primitive solids in the early Solar System.
Applications for extraterrestrial sample analyses under NASA PSEF Program should be made by online form.