Asteroid compositional «rings»: clues to the compositions of primordial planetesimals in the middle solar system

1984 ◽  
Vol 75 ◽  
pp. 703-712
Author(s):  
E.F. Tedesco
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Final Stage ◽  
Heliocentric Distance ◽  
Solar Nebula ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Planetary Rings ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Physical Conditions

ABSTRACTIt has recently been established that the distribution of asteroid taxonomic types at distances between 2.1 and 5.3 astronomical units is highly structured. There are four major, overlapping but nevertheless compositionally distinct, “rings” of asteroids present within this range of heliocentric distance. These “rings”, within which ~ 80% of each of four major taxonomic types (S, C, P, and D) fall, are centered at 2.6 (0.7), 2.9 (0.8), 3.4 (0.7), and 4.6 (1.5) AU respectively, where the numbers within parentheses are the ring “widths” in AU. The overall physical resemblence between the asteroid “rings” and planetary rings is poor; physically the asteroid belt more closely resembles a debris strewn satellite system. This structure is consistent with these objects having been formed directly from the solar nebula at, or near, the heliocentric distances at which we find them today. Once the mineralogy of these taxonomic types is firmly established, and complications arising from post-accreationary metamorphism are dealt with, they may be used as probes of physical conditions in the early solar system. In particular, the identification of primordial planetesimals will allow us to obtain a first-hand look at the siblings of the planetesimals responsible for the final stage of planetary accretion.

scholarly journals The Principle of Least Interaction Action

1974 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 489-489
Author(s):  
M. W. Ovenden
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Planetary System ◽  
Satellite System ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Correct Prediction ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Approximate Methods ◽  
Satellites Of Jupiter ◽  
History Of ◽  
Minimum Interaction

AbstractThe intuitive notion that a satellite system will change its configuration rapidly when the satellites come close together, and slowly when they are far apart, is generalized to ‘The Principle of Least Interaction Action’, viz. that such a system will most often be found in a configuration for which the time-mean of the action associated with the mutual interaction of the satellites is a minimum. The principle has been confirmed by numerical integration of simulated systems with large relative masses. The principle lead to the correct prediction of the preference, in the solar system, for nearly-commensurable periods. Approximate methods for calculating the evolution of an actual satellite system over periods ˜ 109 yr show that the satellite system of Uranus, the five major satellites of Jupiter, and the five planets of Barnard’s star recently discovered, are all found very close to their respective minimum interaction distributions. Applied to the planetary system of the Sun, the principle requires that there was once a planet of mass ˜ 90 Mθ in the asteroid belt, which ‘disappeared’ relatively recently in the history of the solar system.

Boron Behavior During the Evolution of the Early Solar System: The First 180 Million Years

Elements ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 231-236 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles K. Shearer ◽  
Steven B. Simon
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Solar Nebula ◽  
Nuclear Reactions ◽  
Terrestrial Planets ◽  
The Sun ◽  
Planetary Formation ◽  
Light Elements ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Spallation Reactions ◽  
Magma Oceans

The behavior of boron during the early evolution of the Solar System provides the foundation for how boron reservoirs become established in terrestrial planets. The abundance of boron in the Sun is depleted relative to adjacent light elements, a result of thermal nuclear reactions that destroy boron atoms. Extant boron was primarily generated by spallation reactions. In the initial materials condensing from the solar nebula, boron was predominantly incorporated into plagioclase. Boron abundances in the terrestrial planets exhibit variability, as illustrated by B/Be. During planetary formation and differentiation, boron is redistributed by fluids at low temperature and during crystallization of magma oceans at high temperature.

scholarly journals No evidence for interstellar planetesimals trapped in the Solar system

2020 ◽  
Vol 497 (1) ◽  
pp. L46-L49 ◽  
Author(s):  
A Morbidelli ◽  
K Batygin ◽  
R Brasser ◽  
S N Raymond
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Oort Cloud ◽  
Giant Planets ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Interstellar Space ◽  
Fast Decay ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
The Past ◽  
Solar System Bodies ◽  
Main Asteroid Belt

ABSTRACT In two recent papers published in MNRAS, Namouni and Morais claimed evidence for the interstellar origin of some small Solar system bodies, including: (i) objects in retrograde co-orbital motion with the giant planets and (ii) the highly inclined Centaurs. Here, we discuss the flaws of those papers that invalidate the authors’ conclusions. Numerical simulations backwards in time are not representative of the past evolution of real bodies. Instead, these simulations are only useful as a means to quantify the short dynamical lifetime of the considered bodies and the fast decay of their population. In light of this fast decay, if the observed bodies were the survivors of populations of objects captured from interstellar space in the early Solar system, these populations should have been implausibly large (e.g. about 10 times the current main asteroid belt population for the retrograde co-orbital of Jupiter). More likely, the observed objects are just transient members of a population that is maintained in quasi-steady state by a continuous flux of objects from some parent reservoir in the distant Solar system. We identify in the Halley-type comets and the Oort cloud the most likely sources of retrograde co-orbitals and highly inclined Centaurs.

Natural transportation routes in the Solar System

2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (S350) ◽  
pp. 471-473
Author(s):  
Nataša Todorović
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
Outer Part ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Water Molecules ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Type Water ◽  
Transportation Routes

AbstractThe aim of this work is to explain the possible mechanism in the early Solar System, by which water-rich asteroids may have been delivered to Earth. Carbonaceous (C-type) asteroids, with a large fraction of water molecules, dominate in the outer part of the asteroid belt and the possibility of their migration toward Earth is still not well explained. In this work, we observe very efficient dynamical routes along which C-type water-bearing asteroids are delivered to Earth.

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

2020 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy O’Brien ◽  
John A. Tarduno ◽  
Atma Anand ◽  
Aleksey V. Smirnov ◽  
Eric G. Blackman ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Arrival Time ◽  
Carbonaceous Chondrite ◽  
Parent Body ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Carbonaceous Chondrites ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Outer Disk ◽  
Main Asteroid Belt ◽  
Insight Into

AbstractMeteorite 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.

scholarly journals THE ASTEROID BELT AS A RELIC FROM A CHAOTIC EARLY SOLAR SYSTEM

2016 ◽  
Vol 833 (1) ◽  
pp. 40 ◽  
Author(s):  
André Izidoro ◽  
Sean N. Raymond ◽  
Arnaud Pierens ◽  
Alessandro Morbidelli ◽  
Othon C. Winter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Early Solar System

scholarly journals The Movement of Small Particulate Matter in the Early Solar System and the Formation of Satellites

1974 ◽  
Vol 3 ◽  
pp. 483-485
Author(s):  
T. Gold
Keyword(s):  
Particulate Matter ◽  
Solar System ◽  
Vapor Pressure ◽  
Solar Nebula ◽  
Satellite Orbits ◽  
Formation Processes ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Solar System Formation ◽  
Tidal Friction ◽  
Collision Orbits

Satellites are a common feature in the solar system, and all planets on which satellite orbits would be stable possess them. (For Mercury the solar perturbation is too large, and the retrograde spin of Venus would cause satellites to spiral in to the planet through tidal friction.) An explanation of the formation of satellites must hence be one which makes the phenomenon exceedingly probable at some stage in the solar system formation processes, and very improbable processes like a capture cannot be the answer in most cases.Small particulate matter must have been very abundant in the early solar nebula. Such particulate matter must have existed both from the first condensation of the low vapor pressure components of the gas in the first round, and it must also have been composed of material scattered from impacts after some major bodies had begun to form, frequently finding themselves no doubt on collision orbits.

129I/127I: a Puzzling Early Solar System Chronometer

1980 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 145-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Jordan ◽  
T. Kirsten ◽  
H. Richter
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Isotopic Composition ◽  
Solar Nebula ◽  
Spatiotemporal Variations ◽  
Ordinary Chondrites ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Chronological Order ◽  
Metamorphic History ◽  
Accretion Process

AbstractWe report I-Xe ages and other relevant xenon data for seven ordinary chondrites from H and L-groups of petrologic types 4-6, which were selected on the basis of minimum weathering and shock effects. Nevertheless, no chronological order with respect to the I-Xe ages exists among the different petrologic types. We demonstrate, however, that the degree to which the 1-Xe record is preserved in these chondrites, but not necessarily the age, is dependent on the thermal metamorphic history. In order to explain the lack of chronological order among the chondrites, spatiotemporal variations in the condensation-accretion process or inhomogeneities in the isotopic composition of iodine in the solar nebula is required.

scholarly journals Exploring the Bimodal Solar System via Sample Return from the Main Asteroid Belt: The Case for Revisiting Ceres

2020 ◽  
Vol 216 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas H. Burbine ◽  
Richard C. Greenwood
Keyword(s):  
Solar System ◽  
Asteroid Belt ◽  
Early Solar System ◽  
Main Belt ◽  
Sample Return ◽  
Dawn Mission ◽  
Overwhelming Evidence ◽  
Sample Return Mission ◽  
The Rich ◽  
Cost Implications

Abstract Sample return from a main-belt asteroid has not yet been attempted, but appears technologically feasible. While the cost implications are significant, the scientific case for such a mission appears overwhelming. As suggested by the “Grand Tack” model, the structure of the main belt was likely forged during the earliest stages of Solar System evolution in response to migration of the giant planets. Returning samples from the main belt has the potential to test such planet migration models and the related geochemical and isotopic concept of a bimodal Solar System. Isotopic studies demonstrate distinct compositional differences between samples believed to be derived from the outer Solar System (CC or carbonaceous chondrite group) and those that are thought to be derived from the inner Solar System (NC or non-carbonaceous group). These two groups are separated on relevant isotopic variation diagrams by a clear compositional gap. The interface between these two regions appears to be broadly coincident with the present location of the asteroid belt, which contains material derived from both groups. The Hayabusa mission to near-Earth asteroid (NEA) (25143) Itokawa has shown what can be learned from a sample-return mission to an asteroid, even with a very small amount of sample. One scenario for main-belt sample return involves a spacecraft launching a projectile that strikes an object and flying through the debris cloud, which would potentially allow multiple bodies to be sampled if a number of projectiles are used on different asteroids. Another scenario is the more traditional method of landing on an asteroid to obtain the sample. A significant range of main-belt asteroids are available as targets for a sample-return mission and such a mission would represent a first step in mineralogically and isotopically mapping the asteroid belt. We argue that a sample-return mission to the asteroid belt does not necessarily have to return material from both the NC and CC groups to viably test the bimodal Solar System paradigm, as material from the NC group is already abundantly available for study. Instead, there is overwhelming evidence that we have a very incomplete suite of CC-related samples. Based on our analysis, we advocate a dedicated sample-return mission to the dwarf planet (1) Ceres as the best means of further exploring inherent Solar System variation. Ceres is an ice-rich world that may be a displaced trans-Neptunian object. We almost certainly do not have any meteorites that closely resemble material that would be brought back from Ceres. The rich heritage of data acquired by the Dawn mission makes a sample-return mission from Ceres logistically feasible at a realistic cost. No other potential main-belt target is capable of providing as much insight into the early Solar System as Ceres. Such a mission should be given the highest priority by the international scientific community.

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