Abstract
Accretion ages of the first planetesimals—parent bodies of magmatic iron meteorites—suggest that they formed within the first 0.5 to 1 million years of Solar System history. Yet, planetesimal formation appears to have occurred in at least two distinct phases. A temporal offset separates early-forming bodies from later-forming chondrite parent bodies, which accreted 2 to 3 million years after the Solar System onset—an unresolved aspect of Solar System formation. Here, we use numerical simulations to show that Jupiter’s early formation reshaped its natal protoplanetary disk. Jupiter’s rapid growth depleted the inner disk gas and generated pressure bumps and dust traps that manifested as rings. These structures caused dust to accumulate and led to a second-generation planetesimal population, with ages matching those of noncarbonaceous chondrites. Meanwhile, the evolving gas structure suppressed terrestrial embryos’ inward migration, preventing them from reaching the innermost regions. Jupiter likely played a key role in shaping the inner Solar System, consistent with structures observed in class II and transition disks.
The birth of cosmochemistry as field of study can be perhaps traced back to the commune of Alès in Southern France, when Louis Jacques Thénard analyzed and published a study on two soft black stones that had fell on a spring evening of 1806. It was a meteorite, now named after the commune it fell in, and the first carbonaceous chondrite identified. It was an elementary analysis of the strange rock’s composition, and the field would still take more than a century and then some to become fully accepted within the scientific establishment after Harold Urey engaged in research on the abundance of elements on Earth and beyond.
Meteorites however, have been part of the recorded human history since much before. Ursula Marvin’s chapter1 on history of meteorites is an excellent read going much further back. It has been an experiment-first field since its inception, and one of the chief ways to study composition of these rocks was through measurement of isotopic ratios. In the same vein, this work also finds its motivation to an observation inferred through analysis of isotopic abundances in these rocks. Apparently,
References
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Marvin, Ursula B. (2006). “Meteorites in History: An Overview from the Renaissance to the 20th Century”: https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsl/books/edited-volume/1632/chapter-abstract/107423930/Meteorites-in-historyan-overview-from-the?redirectedFrom=fulltext ↩