A research team led by Yves Marrocchi, a cosmochemist at the Centre of Petrographic and Geochemical Research (CPRG) have recently discovered new findings of the conditions of the early solar system that we previously did not know.
New studies suggest that very early on in the formation of the solar system, collisions must have been apparent in order for planets like Jupiter and Saturn to form. The rocky bodies from around the newly formed sun and within the inner solar system experienced violent collisions with icy bodies from the outer solar system.
The way in which the team was able to make the informative discovery was by analyzing two separate samples of chondrite meteorites that had fallen from space and called them Vigarano and Kaba. As part of their studies, the team identified chondrules within the samples, which are formed when molten drops are cooled rapidly in outer space, and make up almost 80 percent of the meteorite. These chondrules were found to be a part of the protoplanetary disk in which our planet and others were created.
Credit: University of Copenhagen/Lars Buchhave
Credit: Yves Marrocchi
The studies of the meteorites, Vigarano and Kaba also revealed that they were formed under oxygen-rich conditions during impacts between planetesimals and were in fact formed under high temperatures, opposed to previous theories suggesting that cold water was they key to the formation. All of the elements of the study point towards a collision occurring in order to make these formations possible and that chondrite are by-products of these collisions. More work is due to continue by the team as they look next into exploring the kinetics, composition of gas and duration of these collisions to reveal more about the formation of our world.
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