Klaus Keil
The pioneer of the electron microprobe in meteorite science, who helped show that ordinary chondrites form three distinct groups.
Key facts
- Born
- 1934
- Died
- 2022
- Nationality
- German-born American
- Field
- Meteoriticist
Klaus Keil was born in Hamburg and studied mineralogy in Germany before moving to the United States in 1961. He worked at NASA's Ames Research Center and the University of New Mexico, and in 1990 moved to the University of Hawaii, where he directed the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology.
Keil was among the first to use the electron microprobe to study meteorites. The instrument fires a narrow beam of electrons at a polished surface and measures the X-rays given off, revealing the chemistry of single mineral grains a few millionths of a metre across. It became the basic tool for classifying meteorites.
In 1964, with Kurt Fredriksson, he measured the iron content of olivine and pyroxene in hundreds of ordinary chondrites. The results fell into three clear clusters, which correspond to the H, L and LL groups still used today. It was strong evidence that ordinary chondrites come from at least three different parent asteroids.
Keil went on to study almost every kind of meteorite, as well as lunar rocks and the origin of chondrules, and wrote or co-wrote hundreds of papers. He trained many meteorite scientists. The mineral keilite, a sulphide from enstatite chondrites, and an asteroid are named after him.