Years Of Solar System History Research Articles

Impact sculpting of the early martian atmosphere.

Intense bombardment of solar system planets in the immediate aftermath of protoplanetary disk dissipation has played a key role in their atmospheric evolution. During this epoch, energetic collisions will have removed substantial masses of gas from rocky planet atmospheres. Noble gases are powerful tracers of this early atmospheric history, xenon in particular, which on Mars and Earth shows significant depletions and isotopic fractionations relative to the lighter noble gasses. To evaluate the effect of impacts on the loss and fractionation of xenon, we measure its ionization and recombination efficiency by laser shock and apply these constraints to model impact-driven atmospheric escape on Mars. We demonstrate that impact bombardment within the first 200 to 300 million years of solar system history generates the observed Xe depletion and isotope fractionation of the modern martian atmosphere. This process may also explain the Xe depletion recorded in Earth's deep mantle and provides a latest date for the timing of giant planet instability.

Compositions of iron-meteorite parent bodies constrain the structure of the protoplanetary disk

Magmatic iron-meteorite parent bodies are the earliest planetesimals in the Solar System, and they preserve information about conditions and planet-forming processes in the solar nebula. In this study, we include comprehensive elemental compositions and fractional-crystallization modeling for iron meteorites from the cores of five differentiated asteroids from the inner Solar System. Together with previous results of metallic cores from the outer Solar System, we conclude that asteroidal cores from the outer Solar System have smaller sizes, elevated siderophile-element abundances, and simpler crystallization processes than those from the inner Solar System. These differences are related to the formation locations of the parent asteroids because the solar protoplanetary disk varied in redox conditions, elemental distributions, and dynamics at different heliocentric distances. Using highly siderophile-element data from iron meteorites, we reconstruct the distribution of calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs) across the protoplanetary disk within the first million years of Solar-System history. CAIs, the first solids to condense in the Solar System, formed close to the Sun. They were, however, concentrated within the outer disk and depleted within the inner disk. Future models of the structure and evolution of the protoplanetary disk should account for this distribution pattern of CAIs.

Bayesian inference on the isotopic building blocks of Mars and Earth

Elements with differing siderophile affinities provide insights into various stages of planetary accretion. The isotopic anomalies they exhibit offer a deeper understanding of the materials responsible for the formation of terrestrial planets. By analyzing new iron isotopic anomaly data from Martian meteorites and drawing insights from published data for O, Ca, Ti, Cr, Fe, Ni, Sr, Zr, Mo, Ru, and Si, we scrutinize potential changes in the isotopic composition of the material accreted by Mars and Earth during their formation. Our methodology employs a Bayesian inference method, executed using a Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) algorithm.The Bayesian method helps us balance the task of emulating the compositions of the terrestrial planets (reflected in the likelihood) with the flexibility to explore the isotopic compositions of mixing components within permissible intervals (indicated by the priors of the nuisance parameters). A Principal Component Analysis of isotopic anomalies in meteorites identifies three main clusters (forming the three parts of the isotopic trichotomy): CI, CC=CM + CO + CV + CR, and NC = EH + EL + H + L + LL. We adopt CI, COCV, O, and E as endmember compositions in the mixtures. We are concerned here with explaining isotopic anomalies in Mars and Earth, not their chemical compositions. Previous studies have shown that Earth's chemical composition could not be well explained by solely considering undifferentiated meteorites, as it requires incorporation of a refractory component enriched in forsterite. The endmember chondrite components considered here are assumed to be representative of isotopic reservoirs that were present in the solar nebula, but the actual building blocks could have had different chemical compositions, and we use cursive letters to denote those putative building blocks (CI for CI, COCV for COCV, O for O, and E for E).Because Earth's mantle composition is an endmember for some isotopic systems, it cannot be reproduced exactly by considering known chondrite groups only and requires involvement of a component that is missing from meteorite collections but is likely close to enstatite meteorites. With this caveat in mind, our results suggest that Earth is primarily an isotopic mixture of ~92% E, 6% CI, and < 2% COCV and O. Mars, on the other hand, appears to be a mixture of ~65% E, 33% O, and < 2% CI and COCV. We establish that Earth's CI contribution substantially increased during the latter half of its accretion. Mars began accreting a mix of O and E but predominantly accreted E later.Mars' changing isotopic makeup during accretion can be explained if it underwent gas-driven type I migration from its origin near the O - E boundary to a location well within the E region during the first few million years of solar system history. Earth's later increased CI contribution may be attributed to the stochastic impact of an interloper carbonaceous embryo that moved inside the inner solar system region while nebular gas was still present, and subsequently participated in the stage of chaotic growth.The discovery that a significant portion of Earth's building blocks closely resembles enstatite chondrites contrasts with recent findings of Si isotopic anomalies in enstatite chondrites when compared to terrestrial rocks. We suggest that this discrepancy likely stems from insufficient correction for high-temperature equilibrium isotopic fractionation, whether of nebular or planetary origin. With appropriate adjustments for this influence, both the silicate Earth and enstatite chondrites exhibit comparable Si isotopic anomalies, reaffirming a genetic link between them.

Origin of nitrogen on Mars: First in situ N isotope analyses of martian meteorites

Martian meteorites are key for assessing the isotopic characteristics of nitrogen in different martian reservoirs (i.e., mantle, crust, and atmosphere), and, ultimately, for constraining the source(s) of nitrogen trapped during the earliest stages of planetary accretion in the terrestrial planet-forming region. In this study, we analysed, for the first time, the nitrogen content and isotopic composition of glassy melt inclusions of Chassigny and of the mesostasis of five nakhlites (MIL 03346, Nakhla, NWA 6148, NWA 998, and Y 000593) by in situ secondary ion mass spectrometry. The nitrogen content of Chassigny melt inclusions, corrected for olivine overgrowth on the inclusion walls, varies from 4 ± 1 to 860 ± 45 ppm N, and the majority of δ15N values range from –35 ± 41 to +73 ± 36‰. The estimated nitrogen isotopic signature of the primitive melt, prior to degassing of N2 or NH3, is 0 ± 32‰. The mesostasis of nakhlites contains 2.7 ± 0.2 to 943 ± 156 ppm N, with δ15N values from –30 ± 37 to +348 ± 43‰. Whereas degassing of N2 or NH3 can explain the lowest nitrogen isotopic ratios measured in the nakhlite mesostasis, the 15N-enriched isotopic composition (δ15N > 150‰) of four nakhlites (MIL 03346, Nakhla, NWA 6148, and Y 000593) likely results from interaction of the mesostasis melt with the martian atmosphere during ejection. The δ15N values (+25 ± 42 and +77 ± 19‰) of two melt inclusions in Y 000593 are comparable to those of Chassigny, further confirming that these meteorites likely sample a common volatile reservoir in the martian interior. Overall, the new results indicate that the chassignite-nakhlite reservoir did not inherit nitrogen from the solar nebula but, instead, from chondritic-like materials. These findings further confirm that planetary bodies in the inner solar system accreted (isotopically) chondritic nitrogen during the first few million years of solar system history.

Early fluid activity on Ryugu inferred by isotopic analyses of carbonates and magnetite

Samples from asteroid Ryugu returned by the Hayabusa2 mission contain evidence of extensive alteration by aqueous fluids and appear related to the CI chondrites. To understand the sources of the fluid and the timing of chemical reactions occurring during the alteration processes, we investigated the oxygen, carbon and 53Mn–53Cr systematics of carbonate and magnetite in two Ryugu particles. We find that the fluid was initially between 0 and 20 °C and enriched in 13C, 17O and 18O, and subsequently evolved towards lighter carbon and oxygen isotopic compositions as alteration proceeded. Carbonate ages show that this fluid–rock interaction took place within approximately the first 1.8 million years of Solar System history, requiring early accretion either in a planetesimal less than ∼20 km in diameter or within a larger body that was disrupted and reassembled. The aqueous activity responsible for carbonate formation on Ryugu happened much earlier—less than 1.8 million years after CAI formation—than estimates (4–6 Myr) from carbonaceous chondrite meteorites. Ryugu’s parent body either was smaller than ∼20 km in diameter or was disrupted before reaching the high temperatures required.

Differentiation time scales of small rocky bodies

The petrologic and geochemical diversity of meteorites is a function of the bulk composition of their parent bodies, but also the result of how and when internal differentiation took place. Here we focus on this second aspect considering the two principal parameters involved: size and accretion time of the body. We discuss the interplay of the various time scales related to heating, cooling and drainage of silicate liquids. Based on two phase flow modeling in 1-D spherical geometry, we show that drainage time is proportional to two independent parameters: μm/R2, the ratio of the matrix viscosity to the square of the body radius and μf/a2, the ratio of the liquid viscosity to the square of the matrix grain size. We review the dependence of these properties on temperature, thermal history and degree of melting, demonstrating that they vary by several orders of magnitude during thermal evolution. These variations call into question the results of two phase flow modeling of small body differentiation that assume constant properties. For example, the idea that liquid migration was efficient enough to remove 26Al heat sources from the interior of bodies and dampen their melting (e.g. Moskovitz and Gaidos, 2011; Neumann et al., 2012) relies on percolation rates of silicate liquids overestimated by six to eight orders of magnitude. In bodies accreted during the first few million years of solar-system history, we conclude that drainage cannot prevent the occurrence of a global magma ocean. These conditions seem ideal to explain the generation of the parent-bodies of iron meteorites. A map of the different evolutionary scenarios of small bodies as a function of size and accretion time is proposed.

Compositions of carbonaceous-type asteroidal cores in the early solar system.

The parent cores of iron meteorites belong to the earliest accreted bodies in the solar system. These cores formed in two isotopically distinct reservoirs: noncarbonaceous (NC) type and carbonaceous (CC) type in the inner and outer solar system, respectively. We measured elemental compositions of CC-iron groups and used fractional crystallization modeling to reconstruct the bulk compositions and crystallization processes of their parent asteroidal cores. We found generally lower S and higher P in CC-iron cores than in NC-iron cores and higher HSE (highly siderophile element) abundances in some CC-iron cores than in NC-iron cores. We suggest that the different HSE abundances among the CC-iron cores are related to the spatial distribution of refractory metal nugget–bearing calcium aluminum–rich inclusions (CAIs) in the protoplanetary disk. CAIs may have been transported to the outer solar system and distributed heterogeneously within the first million years of solar system history.

Early silicic magmatism on a differentiated asteroid

Unlike the other terrestrial planets, Earth has a substantial silica-rich continental crust with a bulk andesitic composition. A small number of meteorites with andesitic bulk compositions have been identified that are thought to be the products of partial melting of chondritic protoliths, a mode of petrogenesis distinct from that of Earth’s continental crust. Here we show, using geochemical analyses, that unlike other known andesitic meteorites, Erg Chech 002 has strongly fractionated and low abundances of the highly siderophile elements and mineralogy consistent with origin from a melt. The meteorite’s bulk composition, which is similar to terrestrial andesites, cannot be explained by partial melting of basaltic lithologies and instead requires a metal-free chondritic source. We argue that Erg Chech 002 probably formed by ~15–25% melting of the mantle of an alkali-undepleted differentiated asteroid. Our findings suggest that extensive silicate differentiation after metal–silicate equilibration of chondritic parent bodies was already occurring within the first 2.25 million years of Solar System history and that andesitic crust formation does not necessarily require plate tectonics.

Short-Lived Nuclides in the Early Solar System: Abundances, Origins, and Applications

Several short-lived radionuclides (SLRs) were present in the first few million years of Solar System history. Their abundances have profound impact on the timing of stellar nucleosynthesis events prior to Solar System formation, chronology of events in the early Solar System, early solar activity, heating of early-formed planetesimals, and chronology of planet formation. Isotopic analytical techniques have undergone dramatic improvements in the past decade, leading to tighter constraints on the levels of SLRs in the early Solar System and on the use of these nuclides for detailed chronological studies. This review emphasizes the abundances of SLRs when the Solar System formed and how we know them, and briefly discusses the origins of these nuclides and applications in planetary science.

Radiogenic chromium isotope evidence for the earliest planetary volcanism and crust formation in the Solar system

ABSTRACT Erg Chech (EC) 002 is a meteorite with andesitic composition, potentially recording the lava crystallization and crust formation of its parent body. Nucleosynthetic Cr isotope composition (ε54Cr = −0.35 ± 0.06) for EC 002 suggests a non-carbonaceous region of the Solar system, and possibly represents the crustal composition of the brachinite parent body. The 53Mn-to-53Cr decay system shows it crystallized at 4566.6 ± 0.6 Ma, i.e. 0.7 ± 0.6 Ma after Solar system formation (only considering the cogenetic matrix fractions with similar ε54Cr values). This age represents the earliest recorded evidence for planetary melting and volcanism in the Solar system, suggesting that the planetary crust formation occurred very early, only within the first few hundred thousand years of Solar system history. However, the 53Mn–53Cr age does not overlap with 26Al–26Mg dating results, which might indicate that non-carbonaceous achondrites have lower initial 26Al/27Al than the canonical value defined by refractory inclusions in carbonaceous chondrites.

Core segregation during pebble accretion

We present a model for terrestrial planet formation by pebble accretion, focusing on core segregation in the early Earth. Our results indicate that if the proto-Earth and the Moon-forming impactor Theia grew by pebble accretion, core-forming metals in each body segregated from mantle-forming silicates within the first few million years of solar system history, while both were enveloped in atmospheres composed of nebular gas. Thermal blanketing by their energy-absorbing atmospheres, heat produced by radioactive decay of aluminum-26, and gravitational energy released by metal segregation resulted in very high internal temperatures, such that the mantle and core of both bodies experienced partial or total melting during accretion. We calculate pressure-temperature conditions where the core-forming metals are predicted to have segregated from magma ocean silicates under pebble accretion. Two-body combinations of these conditions, representing the merger of proto-Earth and Theia, yield average segregation pressures and temperatures that are similar to core segregation conditions previously inferred for impact-driven Earth accretion constrained by metal-silicate partitioning of siderophile elements.

Chromium Isotopic Evidence for Mixing of NC and CC Reservoirs in Polymict Ureilites: Implications for Dynamical Models of the Early Solar System.

Nucleosynthetic isotope anomalies show that the first few million years of solar system history were characterized by two distinct cosmochemical reservoirs, CC (carbonaceous chondrites and related differentiated meteorites) and NC (the terrestrial planets and all other groups of chondrites and differentiated meteorites), widely interpreted to correspond to the outer and inner solar system, respectively. At some point, however, bulk CC and NC materials became mixed, and several dynamical models offer explanations for how and when this occurred. We use xenoliths of CC materials in polymict ureilite (NC) breccias to test the applicability of such models. Polymict ureilites represent regolith on ureilitic asteroids but contain carbonaceous chondrite-like xenoliths. We present the first 54Cr isotope data for such clasts, which, combined with oxygen and hydrogen isotopes, show that they are unique CC materials that became mixed with NC materials in these breccias. It has been suggested that such xenoliths were implanted into ureilites by outer solar system bodies migrating into the inner solar system during the gaseous disk phase ~3-5 Myr after CAI, as in the "Grand Tack" model. However, combined textural, petrologic, and spectroscopic observations suggest that they were added to ureilitic regolith at ~50-60 Myr after CAI, along with ordinary, enstatite, and Rumuruti-type chondrites, as a result of breakup of multiple parent bodies in the asteroid belt at this time. This is consistent with models for an early instability of the giant planets. The C-type asteroids from which the xenoliths were derived were already present in inner solar system orbits.

Arrival and magnetization of carbonaceous chondrites in the asteroid belt before 4562 million years ago

Meteorite magnetizations can provide rare insight into early Solar System evolution. Such data take on new importance with recognition of the isotopic dichotomy between non-carbonaceous and carbonaceous meteorites, representing distinct inner and outer disk reservoirs, and the likelihood that parent body asteroids were once separated by Jupiter and subsequently mixed. The arrival time of these parent bodies into the main asteroid belt, however, has heretofore been unknown. Herein, we show that weak CV (Vigarano type) and CM (Mighei type) carbonaceous chondrite remanent magnetizations indicate acquisition by the solar wind 4.2 to 4.8 million years after Ca-Al-rich inclusion (CAI) formation at heliocentric distances of ~2–4 AU. These data thus indicate that the CV and CM parent asteroids had arrived near, or within, the orbital range of the present-day asteroid belt from the outer disk isotopic reservoir within the first 5 million years of Solar System history.

Cometary Glycolaldehyde as a Source of pre-RNA Molecules.

Over 200 molecules have been detected in multiple extraterrestrial environments, including glycolaldehyde (C2(H2O)2, GLA), a two-carbon sugar precursor that has been detected in regions of the interstellar medium. Its recent in situ detection on the nucleus of comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko and through remote observations in the comae of others provides tantalizing evidence that it is common on most (if not all) comets. Impact experiments conducted at the Experimental Impact Laboratory at NASA's Johnson Space Center have shown that samples of GLA and GLA mixed with montmorillonite clays can survive impact delivery in the pressure range of 4.5 to 25 GPa. Extrapolated to amounts of GLA observed on individual comets and assuming a monotonic impact rate in the first billion years of Solar System history, these experimental results show that up to 1023 kg of cometary GLA could have survived impact delivery, with substantial amounts of threose, erythrose, glycolic acid, and ethylene glycol also produced or delivered. Importantly, independent of the profile of the impact flux in the early Solar System, comet delivery of GLA would have provided (and may continue to provide) a reservoir of starting material for the formose reaction (to form ribose) and the Strecker reaction (to form amino acids). Thus, comets may have been important delivery vehicles for starting molecules necessary for life as we know it.

Evidence for anorthositic crust formed on an inner solar system planetesimal

doi: 10.7185/geochemlet.1921 During the first million years of solar system history, planetesimals experienced extensive melting powered by the radioactive decay of 26 Al (Lee et al., 1977). To date, the only known anorthositic crust on a solar system body is that of the Moon, formed by plagioclase flotation on top of the magma ocean (Wood et al., 1970). Here we show evidence from the ungrouped achondrite meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 8486 that an anorthositic crust formed on a planetes-imal very early in solar system history (<1.7 Ma). NWA 8486 displays the highest anomalies in Eu and Sr found in achondrites so far and, for the first time, this characteristic is also identified in clinopyroxene. Elemental modelling , together with calculated timescales for crystal settling, show that only the melting of an anorthosite can produce NWA 8486 within the first 5 million years of solar system history. Our results indicate that such a differentiation scenario was achievable over short timescales within the inner solar system, and must have contributed to the making and elemental budget of the terrestrial planets.

The background temperature of the protoplanetary disk within the first four million years of the Solar System

The background temperature of the protoplanetary disk is a fundamental but poorly constrained parameter that strongly influences a wide range of conditions and processes in the early Solar System, including the widespread process(es) by which chondrules originate. Chondrules, mm-scale objects composed primarily of silicate minerals, were formed in the protoplanetary disk almost entirely during the first four million years of Solar System history but their formation mechanism(s) are poorly understood. Here we present new constraints on the sub-silicate solidus cooling rates of chondrules at <873 K (600 °C) using the compositions of sulfide minerals. We show that chondrule cooling rates remained relatively rapid (∼100 to 101 K/hr) between 873 and 503 K, which implies a protoplanetary disk background temperature of <503 K (230 °C) and is consistent with many models of chondrule formation by shocks in the solar nebula, potentially driven by the formation of Jupiter and/or planetary embryos, as the chondrule formation mechanism. This protoplanetary disk background temperature rules out current sheets and resulting short-circuit instabilities as the chondrule formation mechanism. More detailed modeling of chondrule cooling histories in impacts is required to fully evaluate impacts as a chondrule formation model. These results motivate further theoretical work to understand the expected thermal evolution of chondrules at ≤873 K under a variety of chondrule formation scenarios.

Silica-rich volcanism in the early solar system dated at 4.565 Ga

The ranges in chemical composition of ancient achondrite meteorites are key to understanding the diversity and geochemical evolution of planetary building blocks. These achondrites record the first episodes of volcanism and crust formation, the majority of which are basaltic. Here we report data on recently discovered volcanic meteorite Northwest Africa (NWA) 11119, which represents the first, and oldest, silica-rich (andesitic to dacitic) porphyritic extrusive crustal rock with an Al–Mg age of 4564.8 ± 0.3 Ma. This unique rock contains mm-sized vesicles/cavities and phenocrysts that are surrounded by quench melt. Additionally, it possesses the highest modal abundance (30 vol%) of free silica (i.e., tridymite) compared to all known meteorites. NWA 11119 substantially widens the range of volcanic rock compositions produced within the first 2.5–3.5 million years of Solar System history, and provides direct evidence that chemically evolved crustal rocks were forming on planetesimals prior to the assembly of the terrestrial planets.

Hydrogen and helium ingassing during terrestrial planet accretion

The amount of atmospheric gas absorbed into a planetary interior during formation depends on the temperature, pressure, composition, and dynamics of its atmosphere, along with the planet mass, its composition, rate of accretion, and the average age of its surface. We develop a boundary layer model for terrestrial planet ingassing during accretion that quantifies the amounts of hydrogen and helium dissolved into a global magma ocean from a hot, gravitationally captured nebular atmosphere in the first few million years of solar system history. Assuming that most of Earth's accretion occurred within the lifetime of its nebular atmosphere, one or more ocean masses of ingassed hydrogen are predicted if the surface pressure is high and the magma surface is young. In addition, Earth would have acquired hundreds of petagrams of helium-3 from the same nebular atmosphere. Our model predicts negligible hydrogen ingassing from a gravitationally captured nebular atmosphere on Mars, but shows that vast amounts of hydrogen ingassing – tens of ocean masses – are possible during the accretion of Super-Earth-sized terrestrial planets.

Angrite meteorites record the onset and flux of water to the inner solar system

Earth and the other rocky bodies that make up the inner solar system are systematically depleted in hydrogen (H) and other cosmochemically volatile elements (e.g., carbon (C), fluorine (F), chlorine (Cl), and thallium (Tl)) relative to primitive undifferentiated meteorites known as carbonaceous chondrites. If we are to understand how and when Earth gained its life-essential elements, it is critical to determine the timing, flux, and nature of the delivery of condensed volatiles into the presumed hot and dry early inner solar system. Here we present evidence preserved in ancient basaltic angrite meteorites for an addition of volatiles to the hot and dry inner solar system within the first two million years of solar system history. Our data demonstrate that the angrite parent body was enriched in highly volatile elements (H, C, F, and Tl) relative to those predicted on the basis of the angrite parent body’s overall volatile depletion trend (e.g., H is enriched by up to a factor of 106). This relative enrichment is best explained by mixing of extremely volatile-depleted material, located well inside the snow line, with volatile-rich material derived from outside the snow line.

40Ar/39Ar age of material returned from asteroid 25143 Itokawa

AbstractThe Hayabusa mission to asteroid 25143, Itokawa, brought back 2000 small particles, which most closely resemble material found in LL4‐6 chondrites. We report an 40Ar/39Ar age of 1.3 ± 0.3 Ga for a sample of Itokawa consisting of three grains with a total mass of ~2 μg. This age is lower than the &gt;4.0 Ga ages measured for 75% of LL chondrites but close to one for Y‐790964 and its pairs. The flat 40Ar/39Ar release spectrum of the sample suggests complete degassing 1.3 Ga ago. Recent solar heating in Itokawa's current orbit does not appear likely to have reset that age. Solar or impact heating 1.3 Ga ago could have done so. If impact heating was responsible, then the 1.3 Ga age sets an upper bound on the time at which the Itokawa rubble pile was assembled and suggests that rubble pile creation was an ongoing process in the inner solar system for at least the first 3 billion years of solar system history.