A non-terrestrial 16O-rich isotopic composition for the protosolar nebula

Ko Hashizume () and Marc Chaussidon
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Ko Hashizume: Graduate School of Science, Osaka University
Marc Chaussidon: CRPG-CNRS

Nature, 2005, vol. 434, issue 7033, 619-622

Abstract: A glimpse of the Sun The discovery of large variations in oxygen isotope content in primitive meteorites presented a puzzle: either the source materials of the Solar System were isotopically inhomogeneous, or the oxygen-bearing building blocks of meteorites and planets were produced through reaction pathways that have not yet been identified. To find out which, we need to know the composition of the protosolar gas — which is probably preserved in the outer layers of the Sun. The sample collectors damaged when the Genesis probe crashed into the Utah desert may yet provide solar material, but an indirect approach to the problem has now yielded results. The Moon has been exposed to the solar wind for many millennia, and analysis of solar material trapped in the outer shell of lunar grains brought back by the Apollo missions suggests that the Sun is enriched in oxygen-16 by a third relative to Earth and bulk meteorites. This implies a similar composition for the protosolar gas, and that most solids of the Solar System underwent reactions that enriched them in oxygen-17 and oxygen-18.

Date: 2005
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DOI: 10.1038/nature03432

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