Mg isotope evidence for contemporaneous formation of chondrules and refractory inclusions

Primitive or undifferentiated meteorites (chondrites) date back to the origin of the Solar System, and thus preserve a record of the physical and chemical processes that occurred during the earliest evolution of the accretion disk surrounding the young Sun. The oldest Solar System materials present within these meteorites are millimetre- to centimetre-sized calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions (CAIs) and ferromagnesian silicate spherules (chondrules), which probably originated by thermal processing of pre-existing nebula solids. Chondrules are currently believed to have formed approximately 2-3 million years (Myr) after CAIs (refs 5-10)--a timescale inconsistent with the dynamical lifespan of small particles in the early Solar System. Here, we report the presence of excess (26)Mg resulting from in situ decay of the short-lived (26)Al nuclide in CAIs and chondrules from the Allende meteorite. Six CAIs define an isochron corresponding to an initial (26)Al/(27)Al ratio of (5.25 +/- 0.10) x 10(-5), and individual model ages with uncertainties as low as +/- 30,000 years, suggesting that these objects possibly formed over a period as short as 50,000 years. In contrast, the chondrules record a range of initial (26)Al/(27)Al ratios from (5.66 +/- 0.80) to (1.36 +/- 0.52) x 10(-5), indicating that Allende chondrule formation began contemporaneously with the formation of CAIs, and continued for at least 1.4 Myr. Chondrule formation processes recorded by Allende and other chondrites may have persisted for at least 2-3 Myr in the young Solar System.     

A young massive planet in a star-disk system

There is a general consensus that planets form within disks of dust and gas around newly born stars. Details of their formation process, however, are still a matter of ongoing debate. The timescale of planet formation remains unclear, so the detection of planets around young stars with protoplanetary disks is potentially of great interest. Hitherto, no such planet has been found. Here we report the detection of a planet of mass (9.8+/-3.3)M(Jupiter) around TW Hydrae (TW Hya), a nearby young star with an age of only 8-10 Myr that is surrounded by a well-studied circumstellar disk. It orbits the star with a period of 3.56 days at 0.04 au, inside the inner rim of the disk. This demonstrates that planets can form within 10 Myr, before the disk has been dissipated by stellar winds and radiation.     

Stardust silicates from primitive meteorites

Primitive chondritic meteorites contain material (presolar grains), at the level of a few parts per million, that predates the formation of our Solar System. Astronomical observations and the chemical composition of the Sun both suggest that silicates must have been the dominant solids in the protoplanetary disk from which the planets of the Solar System formed, but no presolar silicates have been identified in chondrites. Here we report the in situ discovery of presolar silicate grains 0.1-1 microm in size in the matrices of two primitive carbonaceous chondrites. These grains are highly enriched in 17O (delta17O(SMOW) > 100-400 per thousand ), but have solar silicon isotopic compositions within analytical uncertainties, suggesting an origin in an oxygen-rich red giant or an asymptotic giant branch star. The estimated abundance of these presolar silicates (3-30 parts per million) is higher than reported for other types of presolar grains in meteorites, consistent with their ubiquity in the early Solar System, but is about two orders of magnitude lower than their abundance in anhydrous interplanetary dust particles. This result is best explained by the destruction of silicates during high-temperature processing in the solar nebula.     

Super-chondritic Sm/Nd ratios in Mars, the Earth and the Moon

Small isotopic differences in the atomic abundance of neodymium-142 (142Nd) in silicate rocks represent the time-averaged effect of decay of formerly live samarium-146 (146Sm) and provide constraints on the timescales and mechanisms by which planetary mantles first differentiated. This chronology, however, assumes that the composition of the total planet is identical to that of primitive undifferentiated meteorites called chondrites. The difference in the 142Nd/144Nd ratio between chondrites and terrestrial samples may therefore indicate very early isolation (<30 Myr from the formation of the Solar System) of the upper mantle or a slightly non-chondritic bulk Earth composition. Here we present high-precision 142Nd data for 16 martian meteorites and show that Mars also has a non-chondritic composition. Meteorites belonging to the shergottite subgroup define a planetary isochron yielding an age of differentiation of 40 +/- 18 Myr for the martian mantle. This isochron does not pass through the chondritic reference value (100 x epsilon(142)Nd = -21 +/- 3; 147Sm/144Nd = 0.1966). The Earth, Moon and Mars all seem to have accreted in a portion of the inner Solar System with approximately 5 per cent higher Sm/Nd ratios than material accreted in the asteroid belt. Such chemical heterogeneities may have arisen from sorting of nebular solids or from impact erosion of crustal reservoirs in planetary precursors. The 143Nd composition of the primitive mantle so defined by 142Nd is strikingly similar to the putative endmember component 'FOZO' characterized by high 3He/4He ratios.     

Chronology of the early Solar System from chondrule-bearing calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions

Chondrules and Ca-Al-rich inclusions (CAIs) are high-temperature components of meteorites that formed during transient heating events in the early Solar System. A major unresolved issue is the relative timing of CAI and chondrule formation. From the presence of chondrule fragments in an igneous CAI, it was concluded that some chondrules formed before CAIs (ref. 5). This conclusion is contrary to the presence of relict CAIs inside chondrules, as well as to the higher abundance of 26Al in CAIs; both observations indicate that CAIs pre-date chondrules by 1-3 million years (Myr). Here we report that relict chondrule material in the Allende meteorite, composed of olivine and low-calcium pyroxene, occurs in the outer portions of two CAIs and is 16O-poor (Delta17O approximately -1 per thousand to -5 per thousand). Spinel and diopside in the CAI cores are 16O-rich (Delta17O up to -20 per thousand), whereas diopside in their outer zones, as well as melilite and anorthite, are 16O-depleted (Delta17O = -8 per thousand to 2 per thousand). Both chondrule-bearing CAIs are 26Al-poor with initial 26Al/27Al ratios of (4.7 +/- 1.4) x 10(-6) and <1.2 x 10(-6). We conclude that these CAIs had chondrule material added to them during a re-melting episode approximately 2 Myr after formation of CAIs with the canonical 26Al/27Al ratio of 5 x 10(-5).     

Water vapour and hydrogen in the terrestrial-planet-forming region of a protoplanetary disk

Planetary systems (ours included) formed in disks of dust and gas around young stars. Disks are an integral part of the star and planet formation process, and knowledge of the distribution and temperature of inner-disk material is crucial for understanding terrestrial planet formation, giant planet migration, and accretion onto the central star. Although the inner regions of protoplanetary disks in nearby star-forming regions subtend only a few nano-radians, near-infrared interferometry has recently enabled the spatial resolution of these terrestrial zones. Most observations have probed only dust, which typically dominates the near-infrared emission. Here I report spectrally dispersed near-infrared interferometric observations that probe the gas (which dominates the mass and dynamics of the inner disk), in addition to the dust, within one astronomical unit (1 au, the Sun-Earth distance) of the young star MWC 480. I resolve gas, including water vapour and atomic hydrogen, interior to the edge of the dust disk; this contrasts with results of previous spectrally dispersed interferometry observations. Interactions of this accreting gas with migrating planets may lead to short-period exoplanets like those detected around main-sequence stars. The observed water vapour is probably produced by the sublimation of migrating icy bodies, and provides a potential reservoir of water for terrestrial planets.     

Structure and thermal history of the H-chondrite parent asteroid revealed by thermochronometry

Our Solar System formed approximately 4.6 billion years ago from the collapse of a dense core inside an interstellar molecular cloud. The subsequent formation of solid bodies took place rapidly. The period of &<10 million years over which planetesimals were assembled can be investigated through the study of meteorites. Although some planetesimals differentiated and formed metallic cores like the larger terrestrial planets, the parent bodies of undifferentiated chondritic meteorites experienced comparatively mild thermal metamorphism that was insufficient to separate metal from silicate. There is debate about the nature of the heat source as well as the structure and cooling history of the parent bodies. Here we report a study of 244Pu fission-track and 40Ar-39Ar thermochronologies of unshocked H chondrites, which are presumed to have a common, single, parent body. We show that, after fast accretion, an internal heating source (most probably 26Al decay) resulted in a layered parent body that cooled relatively undisturbed: rocks in the outer shells reached lower maximum metamorphic temperatures and cooled faster than the more recrystallized and chemically equilibrated rocks from the centre, which needed approximately 160 Myr to reach 390K.     

Early planetesimal melting from an age of 4.5662 Gyr for differentiated meteorites

Long- and short-lived radioactive isotopes and their daughter products in meteorites are chronometers that can test models for Solar System formation. Differentiated meteorites come from parent bodies that were once molten and separated into metal cores and silicate mantles. Mineral ages for these meteorites, however, are typically younger than age constraints for planetesimal differentiation. Such young ages indicate that the energy required to melt their parent bodies could not have come from the most likely heat source-radioactive decay of short-lived nuclides ((26)Al and (60)Fe) injected from a nearby supernova-because these would have largely decayed by the time of melting. Here we report an age of 4.5662 +/- 0.0001 billion years (based on Pb-Pb dating) for basaltic angrites, which is only 1 Myr younger than the currently accepted minimum age of the Solar System and corresponds to a time when (26)Al and (60)Fe decay could have triggered planetesimal melting. Small (26)Mg excesses in bulk angrite samples confirm that (26)Al decay contributed to the melting of their parent body. These results indicate that the accretion of differentiated planetesimals pre-dated that of undifferentiated planetesimals, and reveals the minimum Solar System age to be 4.5695 +/- 0.0002 billion years.     

A short timescale for terrestrial planet formation from Hf-W chronometry of meteorites

Determining the chronology for the assembly of planetary bodies in the early Solar System is essential for a complete understanding of star- and planet-formation processes. Various radionuclide chronometers (applied to meteorites) have been used to determine that basaltic lava flows on the surface of the asteroid Vesta formed within 3 million years (3 Myr) of the origin of the Solar System. Such rapid formation is broadly consistent with astronomical observations of young stellar objects, which suggest that formation of planetary systems occurs within a few million years after star formation. Some hafnium-tungsten isotope data, however, require that Vesta formed later (approximately 16 Myr after the formation of the Solar System) and that the formation of the terrestrial planets took a much longer time (62(-14)(+4504) Myr). Here we report measurements of tungsten isotope compositions and hafnium-tungsten ratios of several meteorites. Our measurements indicate that, contrary to previous results, the bulk of metal-silicate separation in the Solar System was completed within <30 Myr. These results are completely consistent with other evidence for rapid planetary formation, and are also in agreement with dynamic accretion models that predict a relatively short time (approximately 10 Myr) for the main growth stage of terrestrial planet formation.     

Evidence against a chondritic Earth

The (142)Nd/(144)Nd ratio of the Earth is greater than the solar ratio as inferred from chondritic meteorites, which challenges a fundamental assumption of modern geochemistry--that the composition of the silicate Earth is 'chondritic', meaning that it has refractory element ratios identical to those found in chondrites. The popular explanation for this and other paradoxes of mantle geochemistry, a hidden layer deep in the mantle enriched in incompatible elements, is inconsistent with the heat flux carried by mantle plumes. Either the matter from which the Earth formed was not chondritic, or the Earth has lost matter by collisional erosion in the later stages of planet formation.     

Reflected light from sand grains in the terrestrial zone of a protoplanetary disk

In the standard model of terrestrial planet formation, the first step in the process is for interstellar dust to coagulate within a protoplanetary disk surrounding a young star, forming large grains that settle towards the disk plane. Interstellar grains of typical size approximately 0.1 microm are expected to grow to millimetre- (sand), centimetre- (pebble) or even metre-sized (boulder) objects rather quickly. Unfortunately, such evolved disks are hard to observe because the ratio of surface area to volume of their constituents is small. We readily detect dust around young objects known as 'classical' T Tauri stars, but there is little or no evidence of it in the slightly more evolved 'weak-line' systems. Here we report observations of a 3-Myr-old star, which show that grains have grown to about millimetre size or larger in the terrestrial zone (within approximately 3 au) of this star. The fortuitous geometry of the KH 15D binary star system allows us to infer that, when both stars are occulted by the surrounding disk, it appears as a nearly edge-on ring illuminated by one of the central binary components. This work complements the study of terrestrial zones of younger disks that have been recently resolved by interferometry.     

FeO-rich silicates and Ca, Al-rich inclusions in Qingzhen and Yamato 691 (EH3) meteorites: Evidence for migration of mass in the solar nebula

The Qingzhen and Yamato 691 (EH3) enstatite chondrites, which formed under extremely reducing conditions, are studied using the scanning electron microscope and electron probe microanalyzer. Both meteorites contain FeO-rich silicates and minor Ca, Al-rich inclusions. Most FeO-rich silicates are Ca-poor pyroxenes and occur as fragments in matrix. A few grains of FeO-rich silicates were found in chondrules, and FeO-rich olivine is rare. In Qingzhen, FeO-rich silicates commonly contain abundant dust-like Ni-poor metals, which probably formed through reduction of FeO. In contrast, only a few fragments of FeO-rich silicates in Yamato 691 enclose dust-like metals. This difference is consistent with a more reducing condition of Qingzhen than Yamato 691. Ca, Al-rich inclusions have similar modal compositions and mineral chemistry as their counterparts in carbonaceous chondrites. We suggest that (1) the FeO-rich silicates probably formed in oxidized regions of the solar nebula, and then moved into the enstatite chondrite locations; and (2) Ca, Al-rich inclusions in both enstatite chondrites and carbonaceous chondrites may have similar origins and reservoirs.     

Chondrule formation in particle-rich nebular regions at least hundreds of kilometres across

Chondrules are millimetre-sized spherules (mostly silicate) that dominate the texture of primitive meteorites. Their formation mechanism is debated, but their sheer abundance suggests that the mechanism was both energetic and ubiquitous in the early inner Solar System. The processes suggested--such as shock waves, solar flares or nebula lightning--operate on different length scales that have been hard to relate directly to chondrule properties. Chondrules are depleted in volatile elements, but surprisingly they show little evidence for the associated loss of lighter isotopes one would expect. Here we report a model in which molten chondrules come to equilibrium with the gas that was evaporated from other chondrules, and which explains the observations in a natural way. The regions within which the chondrules formed must have been larger than 150-6,000 km in radius, and must have had a precursor number density of at least 10 m(-3). These constraints probably exclude nebula lightning, and also make formation far from the nebula midplane problematic. The wide range of chondrule compositions may be the result of different combinations of the local concentrations of precursors and the local abundance of water ice or vapour.     

Iron meteorites as remnants of planetesimals formed in the terrestrial planet region

Iron meteorites are core fragments from differentiated and subsequently disrupted planetesimals. The parent bodies are usually assumed to have formed in the main asteroid belt, which is the source of most meteorites. Observational evidence, however, does not indicate that differentiated bodies or their fragments were ever common there. This view is also difficult to reconcile with the fact that the parent bodies of iron meteorites were as small as 20 km in diameter and that they formed 1-2 Myr earlier than the parent bodies of the ordinary chondrites. Here we show that the iron-meteorite parent bodies most probably formed in the terrestrial planet region. Fast accretion times there allowed small planetesimals to melt early in Solar System history by the decay of short-lived radionuclides (such as 26Al, 60Fe). The protoplanets emerging from this population not only induced collisional evolution among the remaining planetesimals but also scattered some of the survivors into the main belt, where they stayed for billions of years before escaping via a combination of collisions, Yarkovsky thermal forces, and resonances. We predict that some asteroids are main-belt interlopers (such as (4) Vesta). A select few may even be remnants of the long-lost precursor material that formed the Earth.     

Hf-W-Th evidence for rapid growth of Mars and its status as a planetary embryo

Terrestrial planets are thought to have formed through collisions between large planetary embryos of diameter ～1,000-5,000?km. For Earth, the last of these collisions involved an impact by a Mars-size embryo that formed the Moon 50-150?million years (Myr) after the birth of the Solar System. Although model simulations of the growth of terrestrial planets can reproduce the mass and dynamical parameters of the Earth and Venus, they fall short of explaining the small size of Mars. One possibility is that Mars was a planetary embryo that escaped collision and merging with other embryos. To assess this idea, it is crucial to know Mars' accretion timescale, which can be investigated using the (182)Hf-(182)W decay system in shergottite-nakhlite-chassignite meteorites. Nevertheless, this timescale remains poorly constrained owing to a large uncertainty associated with the Hf/W ratio of the Martian mantle and as a result, contradicting timescales have been reported that range between 0 and 15?Myr (refs 6-10). Here we show that Mars accreted very rapidly and reached about half of its present size in only 1.8(+0.9)(-1.0) Myr or less, which is consistent with a stranded planetary embryo origin. We have found a well-defined correlation between the Th/Hf and (176)Hf/(177)Hf ratios in chondrites that reflects remobilization of Lu and Th during parent-body processes. Using this relationship, we estimate the Hf/W ratio in Mars' mantle to be 3.51?±?0.45. This value is much more precise than previous estimates, which ranged between 2.6 and 5.0 (ref. 6), and lifts the large uncertainty that plagued previous estimates of the age of Mars. Our results also demonstrate that Mars grew before dissipation of the nebular gas when ～100-km planetesimals, such as the parent bodies of chondrites, were still being formed. Mars' accretion occurred early enough to allow establishment of a magma ocean powered by decay of (26)Al.     

An early extrasolar planetary system revealed by planetesimal belts in beta Pictoris

beta Pictoris (beta Pic) is a main-sequence star with an edge-on dust disk that might represent a state of the early Solar System. The dust does not seem to be a remnant from the original protoplanetary disk, but rather is thought to have been generated from large bodies like planetesimals and/or comets. The history and composition of the parent bodies can therefore be revealed by determining the spatial distribution, grain size, composition and crystallinity of the dust through high-resolution mid-infrared observations. Here we report that the sub-micrometre amorphous silicate grains around beta Pic have peaks in their distribution around 6, 16 and 30 au (1 au is the Sun-Earth distance), whereas the crystalline and micrometre-sized amorphous silicate grains are concentrated in the disk centre. As sub-micrometre grains are blown quickly out from the system by radiation pressure from the central star, the peaks indicate the locations of ongoing dust replenishment, which originates from ring-like distributions of planetesimals or 'planetesimal belts'.     

A debris disk around an isolated young neutron star

Pulsars are rotating, magnetized neutron stars that are born in supernova explosions following the collapse of the cores of massive stars. If some of the explosion ejecta fails to escape, it may fall back onto the neutron star or it may possess sufficient angular momentum to form a disk. Such 'fallback' is both a general prediction of current supernova models and, if the material pushes the neutron star over its stability limit, a possible mode of black hole formation. Fallback disks could dramatically affect the early evolution of pulsars, yet there are few observational constraints on whether significant fallback occurs or even the actual existence of such disks. Here we report the discovery of mid-infrared emission from a cool disk around an isolated young X-ray pulsar. The disk does not power the pulsar's X-ray emission but is passively illuminated by these X-rays. The estimated mass of the disk is of the order of 10 Earth masses, and its lifetime (> or = 10(6) years) significantly exceeds the spin-down age of the pulsar, supporting a supernova fallback origin. The disk resembles protoplanetary disks seen around ordinary young stars, suggesting the possibility of planet formation around young neutron stars.     

Iron meteorite evidence for early formation and catastrophic disruption of protoplanets

In our Solar System, the planets formed by collisional growth from smaller bodies. Planetesimals collided to form Moon-to-Mars-sized protoplanets in the inner Solar System in 0.1-1 Myr, and these collided more energetically to form planets. Insights into the timing and nature of collisions during planetary accretion can be gained from meteorite studies. In particular, iron meteorites offer the best constraints on early stages of planetary accretion because most are remnants of the oldest bodies, which accreted and melted in <1.5 Myr, forming silicate mantles and iron-nickel metallic cores. Cooling rates for various groups of iron meteorites suggest that if the irons cooled isothermally in the cores of differentiated bodies, as conventionally assumed, these bodies were 5-200 km in diameter. This picture is incompatible, however, with the diverse cooling rates observed within certain groups, most notably the IVA group, but the large uncertainties associated with the measurements do not preclude it. Here we report cooling rates for group IVA iron meteorites that range from 100 to 6,000 K Myr(-1), increasing with decreasing bulk Ni. Improvements in the cooling rate model, smaller error bars, and new data from an independent cooling rate indicator show that the conventional interpretation is no longer viable. Our results require that the IVA meteorites cooled in a 300-km-diameter metallic body that lacked an insulating mantle. This body probably formed approximately 4,500 Myr ago in a 'hit-and-run' collision between Moon-to-Mars-sized protoplanets. This demonstrates that protoplanets of approximately 10(3) km size accreted within the first 1.5 Myr, as proposed by theory, and that fragments of these bodies survived as asteroids.     

Noble-gas-rich chondrules in an enstatite meteorite

Chondrules are silicate spherules that are found in abundance in the most primitive class of meteorites, the chondrites. Chondrules are believed to have formed by rapid cooling of silicate melt early in the history of the Solar System, and their properties should reflect the composition of (and physical conditions in) the solar nebula at the time when the Sun and planets were forming. It is usually believed that chondrules lost all their noble gases at the time of melting. Here we report the discovery of significant amounts of trapped noble gases in chondrules in the enstatite chondrite Yamato-791790, which consists of highly reduced minerals. The elemental ratios 36Ar/132Xe and 84Kr/132Xe are similar to those of 'subsolar' gas, which has the highest 36Ar/132Xe ratio after that of solar-type noble gases. The most plausible explanation for the high noble-gas concentration and the characteristic elemental ratios is that solar gases were implanted into the chondrule precursor material, followed by incomplete loss of the implanted gases through diffusion over time.     

Low-temperature crystallization of silicate dust in circumstellar disks.

Silicate dust in the interstellar medium is observed to be amorphous, yet silicate dust in comets and interplanetary dust particles is sometimes partially crystalline. The dust in disks that are thought to be forming planets around some young stars also appears to be partially crystalline. These observations suggest that as the dust goes from the precursor clouds to a planetary system, it must undergo some processing, but the nature and extent of this processing remain unknown. Here we report observations of highly crystalline silicate dust in the disks surrounding binary red-giant stars. The dust was created in amorphous form in the outer atmospheres of the red giants, and therefore must be processed in the disks to become crystalline. The temperatures in these disks are too low for the grains to anneal; therefore, some low-temperature process must be responsible. As the physical properties of the disks around young stars and red giants are similar, our results suggest that low-temperature crystallization of silicate grains also can occur in protoplanetary systems.