{"id":463472,"date":"2020-12-04T09:24:52","date_gmt":"2020-12-04T14:24:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/?p=463472"},"modified":"2020-12-04T10:09:32","modified_gmt":"2020-12-04T15:09:32","slug":"rochester-researchers-uncover-key-clues-about-the-solar-systems-history-463472","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rochester.edu\/newscenter\/rochester-researchers-uncover-key-clues-about-the-solar-systems-history-463472\/","title":{"rendered":"Rochester researchers uncover key clues about the solar system\u2019s history"},"content":{"rendered":"

New clues lead to a better understanding of the evolution of the solar system and the origin of Earth as a habitable planet.<\/h2>\n

In a new paper<\/a> published in the journal Nature Communications Earth and Environment<\/em>, researchers at the University of Rochester<\/a> were able to use magnetism to determine, for the first time, when carbonaceous chondrite asteroids\u2014asteroids that are rich in water and amino acids\u2014first arrived in the inner solar system. The research provides data that helps inform scientists about the early origins of the solar system and why some planets, such as Earth, became habitable and were able to sustain conditions conducive for life, while other planets, such as Mars, did not.<\/p>\n

\"illustration
Illustration of solar wind flowing over asteroids in the early solar system. The magnetic field of the solar wind (white line\/arrows) magnetizes the asteroid (red arrow). Researchers at the University of Rochester used magnetism to determine, for the first time, when carbonaceous chondrite asteroids first arrived in the inner solar system. (University of Rochester illustration \/ Michael Osadciw)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The research also gives scientists data that can be applied to the discovery of new exoplanets.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is special interest in defining this history\u2014in reference to the huge number of exoplanet discoveries\u2014to deduce whether events might have been similar or different in exo-solar systems,\u201d says John Tarduno<\/a>, the William R. Kenan, Jr., Professor in the Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences<\/strong><\/a> and dean of research for Arts, Sciences & Engineering at Rochester. \u201cThis is another component of the search for other habitable planets.\u201d<\/p>\n

Solving a paradox using a meteorite in Mexico<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Some meteorites are pieces of debris from outer space objects such as asteroids. After breaking apart from their \u201cparent bodies,\u201d these pieces are able to survive passing through the atmosphere and eventually hit the surface of a planet or moon.<\/p>\n

Studying the magnetization of meteorites can give researchers a better idea of when the objects formed and where they were located early in the solar system\u2019s history.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe realized several years ago that we could use the magnetism of meteorites derived from asteroids to determine how far these meteorites were from the sun when their magnetic minerals formed,\u201d Tarduno says.<\/p>\n

In order to learn more about the origin of meteorites and their parent bodies, Tarduno and the researchers studied magnetic data collected from the Allende meteorite, which fell to Earth and landed in Mexico in 1969. The Allende meteorite is the largest carbonaceous chondrite meteorite found on Earth and contains minerals\u2014calcium-aluminum inclusions\u2014that are thought to be the first solids formed in the solar system. It is one of the most studied meteorites and was considered for decades to be the classic example of a meteorite from a primitive asteroid parent body.<\/p>\n

In order to determine when the objects formed and where they were located, the researchers first had to address a paradox about meteorites that was confounding the scientific community: how did the meteorites gain magnetization?<\/p>\n

Recently, a controversy arose when some researchers proposed that carbonaceous chondrite meteorites like Allende had been magnetized by a core dynamo, like that of Earth. Earth is known as a differentiated body because it has a crust, mantle, and core that are separated by composition and density. Early in their history, planetary bodies can gain enough heat so that there is widespread melting and the dense material\u2014iron\u2014sinks to the center.<\/p>\n

New experiments by Rochester graduate student Tim O\u2019Brien, the first author of the paper, found that magnetic signals interpreted by prior researchers was not actually from a core. Instead, O\u2019Brien found, the magnetism is a property of Allende\u2019s unusual magnetic minerals.<\/p>\n

Determining Jupiter\u2019s role in asteroid migration<\/strong><\/h3>\n

Having solved this paradox, O\u2019Brien was able to identify meteorites with other minerals that could faithfully record early solar system magnetizations.<\/p>\n

Tarduno\u2019s magnetics group then combined this work with theoretical work from Eric Blackman, a professor of physics and astronomy, and computer simulations led by graduate student Atma Anand and Jonathan Carroll-Nellenback, a computational scientist at Rochester\u2019s Laboratory for Laser Energetics. These simulations showed that solar winds draped around early solar system bodies and it was this solar wind that magnetized the bodies.<\/p>\n

Using these simulations and data, the researchers determined that the parent asteroids from which carbonaceous chondrite meteorites broke off arrived in the Asteroid Belt from the outer solar system about 4,562 million years ago, within the first five million years of solar system history.<\/p>\n

Tarduno says the analyses and modeling offers more support for the so-called grand tack theory of the motion of Jupiter. While scientists once thought planets and other planetary bodies formed from dust and gas in an orderly distance from the sun, today scientists realize that the gravitational forces associated with giant planets\u2014such as Jupiter and Saturn\u2014can drive the formation and migration of planetary bodies and asteroids. The grand tack theory suggests that asteroids were separated by the gravitational forces of the giant planet Jupiter, whose subsequent migration then mixed the two asteroid groups.<\/p>\n

He adds, \u201cThis early motion of carbonaceous chondrite asteroids sets the stage for further scattering of water-rich bodies\u2014potentially to Earth\u2014later in the development of the solar system, and it may be a pattern common to exoplanet systems.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Read more<\/strong><\/h3>\n
\n
\"JohnNew research unlocks clues about Earth\u2019s magnetic field<\/strong><\/a>
\nProfessor John Tarduno has analyzed zircon crystals collected from sites in Australia\u2014the oldest known terrestrial materials\u2014to construct a timeline of Earth\u2019s magnetic field, finding that the field was stronger than previously believed.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"illustrationEarth\u2019s inner core is much younger than we thought<\/strong><\/a>
\nRochester researchers have gathered the first field data that show the Earth\u2019s inner core is only about 565 million years old\u2014relatively young compared to the age of our 4.5-billion-year-old planet.<\/span><\/div>\n
\"illustrationEarth\u2019s magnetic field fluctuations explained by new data<\/strong><\/a>
\nUsing new data gathered from sites in southern Africa, researchers have extended their record of Earth\u2019s magnetic field back thousands of years to the first millennium.<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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