Petrology and composition of dark clasts from CR NWA 14250. Backscattered electron (BSE) images of (A) a large chondrule-containing clast and (B) a smaller clast without chondrules. (C) Average laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer analyzes of the dark clast matrix show that the matrices of both clast types are chemically identical and resemble CI chondrites (y = 1) and Ryugu (orange). Credit: Scientific progress (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp1613
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Petrology and composition of dark clasts from CR NWA 14250. Backscattered electron (BSE) images of (A) a large chondrule-containing clast and (B) a smaller clast without chondrules. (C) Average laser ablation-inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometer analyzes of the dark clast matrix show that the matrices of both clast types are chemically identical and resemble CI chondrites (y = 1) and Ryugu (orange). Credit: Scientific progress (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp1613
A multi-institutional team of planetary scientists has learned more about the early composition of the solar system by studying a meteorite called Northwest Africa 14250. In their research, published in the journal Scientific progressthe group used a scanning tunneling microscope to learn more about the isotopic composition of clasts in the sample.
Previous research has suggested that the solar system began as nothing more than a dust cloud. Then, the spinning of the cloud of material led to the formation of a disk with a center that eventually formed the sun. The outer parts of the disk eventually formed all the planets, moons, asteroids and comets.
Some of that early material, researchers believe, has remained essentially unchanged and is orbiting the planets. That material is the Oort cloud, which now consists largely of chunks of ice and rock.
Such chunks, if they happen to find their way to Earth, are considered comets. When they collide with Earth, they are burned up in the atmosphere, making it difficult to study their composition. But in recent years, scientists have discovered that such comets sometimes collide with meteorites and material can adhere to them. These meteorites, if they find their way to the Earth’s surface, can be studied.
In this new effort, the research team analyzed one such meteorite called Northwest Africa 14250.
The team focused on clasts, which are clumps of material found in meteorites that are not original meteorite material: they are strange and could be pieces of other meteorites or comets.
When studying the isotopic composition of the clasts using a scanning tunneling microscope, the research team found that they were similar to clasts found in other meteorites known to originate outside Neptune, and to clasts collected from the asteroid Ryugu.
Such findings, the team suggests, indicate that primordial material is common in the Solar System and also that the protoplanetary disk was probably quite uniform as well.
More information:
Elishevah van Kooten et al., The nucleosynthetic fingerprint of the outer protoplanetary disk and the early dynamics of the Solar System, Scientific progress (2024). DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adp1613
Magazine information:
Scientific progress
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