Scientists have discovered a priceless treasure of the early Solar System, hidden within an ancient meteorite that fell to Earth.
According to Science Alert, an analysis by an international research team reveals that the NWA 14250 meteorite, found in Northwest Africa in 2018, holds unique secrets about Earth’s “infancy.”
This is because it contains fragments of material from the protoplanetary disk of the Solar System, formed 4.5 billion years ago.
Electron microscope images show clusters of material from the protoplanetary disk mixed with other materials from a comet – (Image: SCIENCE ADVANCES).
The protoplanetary disk is a massive disc-shaped object surrounding a young star. Inside this disk are gas, dust, and debris that gradually coalesce to form protoplanets and other “child” objects.
The first objects that formed in the disk underwent numerous collisions, shattering and reassembling, ultimately becoming planets, dwarf planets, and everything else that constitutes a complete solar system.
Thus, it can be said that the protoplanetary disk is where Earth was conceived.
Isotopes within the material clusters provide ancient traces of protoplanet formation 4.5 billion years ago – (Image: SCIENCE ADVANCES).
The research team, led by cosmochemist Elishevah van Kooten from the University of Copenhagen (Denmark), utilized scanning electron microscopy and spectroscopy analysis of NWA 14250.
This helped identify the isotopes of various minerals found within the material clusters inside the meteorite.
They discovered that the minerals in some clusters likely originated from a comet. But more than that, the material from some clusters is very familiar – resembling what is found in other meteorites outside the orbit of Neptune.
They also share similarities with samples taken from the asteroid Ryugu, an object considered a “fossil” from the dawn of the Solar System.
This discovery indicates that primitive material is not only relatively common in the Solar System but also serves as evidence that the composition of the protoplanetary disk was relatively homogeneous throughout the formation of our solar system.
The isotopic signatures that today belong to the region of comet formation at the edge of the Solar System are widespread, reflecting that this protoplanetary disk contained significant building blocks for planets in the distant area near the system’s boundary.
The region of comet formation refers to the Oort Cloud, a belt filled with comets and icy asteroids that encircle our solar system.
Previously, there had been hypotheses suggesting that the protoplanets and the first planets of the system – including Jupiter, the first planet to form – originated far from the Sun and gradually moved inward.
“This presents an opportunity to identify the nuclear synthesis traces of the comet formation region and thus shed light on the accretion history of the Solar System’s protoplanetary disk“, the authors concluded in their publication in the scientific journal Science Advances.
