-Eötvös University, Faculty of Science, Cosmic Materials Space Research Group
-EÖTVÖS UNIVERSITY, FACULTY OF SCIENCE GEONOMY SCIENTIFIC COMMITTEE, HUNG. ACADEMY OF SCIENCE COSMIC MATERIALS RESEARCH GROUP
  Place:  H-1117 Budapest, Pázmány s. 1/A.
  Telephone:  (36-1) 372-2986, (36-1) 266-3932 
  Fax:   (36-1) 372-2505 
  E-mail:  bercziszani(kukac)ludens.elte.hu 

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATORS: 
Szaniszló Bérczi, program organizer 
Vilmos Cech, engineer 
Csaba Detre, IGCP 384 leader 
Imre Kubovics, professor emeritus 
Béla Lukács, scientific adviser

We loaned and investigated three remarkable cosmic material thin section sets. Two of them were received from NASA Johnson Space Center (Lunar Petrographic Thin Section Set and Antarctic Meteorite Educational Thin Section Set) and one of them were from the National Institute of Polar Research of Japan (NIPR, Antarctic Meteorite Thin Section Set). All these collections were on loan at the The Eötvös Loránd University for longer (NIPR set, 3 years) or shorter (NASA Lunar set for half a year, and NASA Antarctic set for two months).
The Lunar Sample Thin Section Set consisted of 12 thin sections representative to different lunar rock types and locations from the collections of the Apollo expeditions to the Moon between 1969-1972. (Except Apollo 11 mission samples, which were not involved in the collection). The NIPR Antarctic Meteorite collection was collected in the Japanese Antarctic Meteorite Expeditions between 1969-1987, and stored and classified by the National Institute of Polar Research, Tokyo, Japan. It contains 30 thin sections of different meteorites which represents the Solar System materials. Not only meteorites with mainly asteroidal origin, but planetary samples (two with lunar and one with martian origin) were also present in this thin section collection, therefore this is the best representative collection about our planetary system condensed materials. The NASA Antarctic Meteorite collection was collected in the Expeditions organized by NASA and NSF of USA as national and international Antarctic missions between 1977-1983, and stored at NASA JSC Cosmic Material Laboratory. It also contains 12 thin sections of different meteorites among which there is a martian sample: ALHA 79001, which represents other then asteroidal Solar System material, too. The samples were studied by petrographic polarisation microscope, and statistical comparisons were calculated for different meteorite collections datasets. Special courses were organized both in Eötvös Loránd and József Attila Universities, and special lectures were given in many universities and teacher training colleges all over in the country. Most of our research studies focused on evolutionary aspects of cosmic material collections. If we imagine a planetary evolutionary sequence, which is represented by the Earth, the Mars, the Moon and an Asteroid, all of these planetary bodies were sampled somehow by these three cosmic material collections. We attached terrestrial geology and petrology in order to make a much wider spectrum of planetary bodies into studies involved. After Erath, moon was sampled most richly by the specimens of the NASA lunar collection and the two NIPR lunar meteorites. Mars was represented by three Antarctic meteorite samples. Best representation was reached for asteroids, although many different sized bodies were sampled by the meteorites. The multi stage evolution of rocky celestial bodies with a wide size range could be read out from these thin sections. We summarized in a 25 minutes videofilm our knowledge and new results on the great evolutionary tendencies in a large (Moon) and a small (Asteroidal) planetary body. The film was made on the basis of two educational thin section sets of NIPR Antarctic Meteorites and NASA Lunar Samples. Our movie not only intended to show a synthesis from the available characteristic textural types by selecting and arranging them according to a theoretically plausible evolutionary sequences, but we intended to show special features (like spherules, sector zoned pyroxenes, lunar impact effects, the role of gravitation in texture-formation, etc.) and their beauties of such petrologic microscopy work. The film is valuable for both research colleagues, students and teachers in their extraterrestrial geology and cosmopetrographical studies. Thermal evolution of a rocky celestial body strongly depends on the size (and so the mass) of the body. Active period with products of layers on the surface could last ca. 100 Ma on an asteroidal sized body with ca. 100-200 kms in diameter, while this interval for the Moon lasted for more than 2 Ga. Meteorites are fragments of different asteroidal sized bodies. Mineralogical and textural characteristics of various meteorites reveal processes, which help to arrange them into types and classes. Many important processes can be fitted into a global evolutionary picture if we assume, that larger bodies suffered thermal transformation during their early lifetime, when radioctive heating warmed up them. This way main chondritic processes of early classifications to types of Prior, then Urey and Craig, further developments by Wiik, Keil and Fredriksson, and to petrologic class definition of Van Schmus and Wood serve as parallel partial processes in this global picture. Studies of lunar stratigraphy (ie. Wilhelms, 1978) sketched important global picture of the lunar thermal evoltuion, although no exact geologic timescale could have been connected to this sequence of events. Nevertheless, the main periods of pre-Nectarian, Nectarian, Imbrian, Eratosthenian and Copernican stratigraphic units reflected, that earlier interval of inner activity ceased and a later interval of only impact type outer events followed in the lunar evolutionary history. Lunar samples from the 6 Apollo missions first corresponded rock types to the principal geologic provinces on the Moon and radioactive dating of the samples projected this stratigraphic units to the idealised column of the absolute age system. Petrologic studies revealed the main great evolutionary periods in the early history of the Moon: crust formation by flotation of feldspars in the early magma ocean, and the later second period of extrusion of partial melts from the lunar mantle to the surface, so filling large impact basins forming lunar maria. Our film was a first step to show planetary evolutionary events on the smaller rocky bodies in the Solar System. Later films will show Martian and Terrestrial evolution, but on the background of a common Solar System perspective, emphasizing that any bodies could have preserved an important time-section of celestial body evolution which is not available yet on the others. We reported our studies on different symposiums and conferences. We took part on the 21st and 22nd Symposiums on Antarctic Meteorites held in Tokyo by NIPR and for the first time, we could attend the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference, the 29th held at Houston, Texas, 1997 March. We presented our special results on meteorite statistics, comparison of evolutionary phenomena (iron grain size distribution, reduction in different petrologic systems, main evolutionary paths for chondrite types parent bodies) on these conferences. We also took part in organization of the Hungarian-Japanese Scientific and Technology Cooperation Project on Spherules and the first conference of this cooperation held in Tokyo with title: Terrestrial Impacts and Spherules Symposium (TISS). As a summary, our group published 26 papers on these four conferences.