Thursday, October 3, 2013

New Clues to the Early Solar System from Ancient Meteorites


In order to understand the history of the Solar System we have to learn about meteoroids. One type of meteoroid which researchers concentrated on was diogenites. The diogenites come from asteroid Vesta. They are one of the oldest Solar System meteoroids. The scientists examined samples of diogenites to find clues to some of the Solar System’s chemical processing. They found out that planets were created from the floating debris of the Solar System. This whole process involved a lot of heat. The planets had different layers like a metallic core, asilicate mantle, and the crust. Based on the examination of the meteoroids the scientists concluded that Earth and the Moon were created 4.4 billion years ago, while Mars was created 4.5 billion years ago. The meteoroids, Diogenites, proved that accretion, core formation, and primary differentiation were all done in 2 to 3 million years.


 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/07/120722135204.htm

1 comment:

  1. Might be helpful to define some of the terms for your readers, such as "diogenites."

    Good summary, but I would like to know HOW these diogenites proved that accretion and differentiation of Earth's layers all occurred in the 2 to 3 million year period.

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