US EditionScientists Date Jupiter's Birth Using Meteorite Droplets
Researchers linked Jupiter's formation to molten rock droplets in meteorites, showing planetesimal collisions created chondrules that date back 4.6 billion years, clarifying solar system evolution.
- Researchers at Nagoya University and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics have for the first time determined how molten droplets formed and used that to date Jupiter's formation, with results published in Scientific Reports.
- About 4.5 billion years ago, Jupiter rapidly grew by accumulating intense nebular gas, and its powerful gravity disrupted planetesimal orbits, causing high-speed impacts in the early solar system.
- Professor Sin-iti Sirono explained that vaporized water expanded like tiny explosions, breaking molten silicate into droplets, and simulations matched meteorite data with chondrules 0.1 to 2 millimetres wide.
- Meteorite data pinpoint peak chondrule formation to 1.8 million years after the solar system began, matching Jupiter's birth, but Dr Diego Turrini says this brief production cannot explain chondrules' diverse ages.
- The study suggests similar processes could occur around other stars, with the team noting other giant planets like Saturn may have triggered chondrule formation and meteorites carry asteroid fragments to Earth.
10 Articles
10 Articles
Scientists date the origin of Jupiter by studying ancient droplets
Researchers have for the first time determined the date and origin of ancient droplets from Jupiter found in meteorites. The molten rock raindrops help astronomers trace the history of the giant gas planet’s creation and present a clearer picture of how the solar system formed. Jupiter formed about 4.5 billion years ago. As the planet grew, its powerful gravitational pull caused nearby small icy and rocky bodies called planetesimals to crash in…
Chondrule formation by collisions of planetesimals containing volatiles triggered by Jupiter’s formation - Scientific Reports
Chondrules are spherical or subspherical particles of crystallized or partially crystallized liquid silicates that constitute large-volume fractions of most chondritic meteorites. Chondrules typically range $$0.1-2\,$$ mm in size and solidified with cooling rates of $$10-1000\,\mathrm{K\,h^{-1}}$$ , yet these characteristics prove difficult to reconcile with proposed formation models. We numerically show that collisions among planetesimals conta…
Scientists date the origin of Jupiter by studying the formation of “molten rock raindrops”
Four and a half billion years ago Jupiter rapidly grew to its massive size. Its powerful gravitational pull disrupted the orbits of small rocky and icy bodies similar to modern asteroids and comets, called planetesimals. This caused them to smash into each other at such high speeds that the rocks and dust they contained melted on impact and created floating molten rock droplets, or chondrules, that we find preserved in meteorites today. Now…
Molten rock raindrops help trace the history of Jupiter's formation
Four and a half billion years ago, Jupiter rapidly grew to its massive size. Its powerful gravitational pull disrupted the orbits of small rocky and icy bodies similar to modern asteroids and comets, called planetesimals. This caused them to smash into each other at such high speeds that the rocks and dust they contained melted on impact and created floating molten rock droplets, or chondrules, that we find preserved in meteorites today.
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