Even a single deceptively mundane-looking meteorite can hold the key to transform our understanding of how the solar system formed. This tiny meteorite, called Northwest Africa 12264, is one of the lightest weighing just 50 grams. A dealer in Morocco sold it to collectors originally in 2018. According to a new study released today in the journal Communications Earth & Environment, that number could be fixed at about 4.564 billion years. This new discovery upends decades-old assumptions about the timing of rocky planet formation.
Dr. Ben Rider-Stokes of The Open University in Milton Keynes, England, led the study. In doing so, they were able to constrain the age of Northwest Africa 12264 by measuring its lead isotopes. This result comes very close to dating of basalts found in the inner solar system. It implies that the history of planet formation is a lot less straightforward than we ever realized.
Implications of the Research
The ultimate origin of Northwest Africa 12264 raises key questions about the time at which planets start forming. For decades, scientists believed that planets closer to the sun formed before those in the outer solar system, particularly those beyond the asteroid belt. Contrary to the long-accepted idea, the new findings indicate that rocky planets in both zones could have formed at about the same time.
Our four inner protoplanets had their cores formed no later than 4.566 billion years ago. The outer protoplanets came into view at about 4.563 billion years ago. A variance of two or three million years must feel like peanuts in the cosmic scale of things. Yet this time gap can have a profound impact on how we interpret the formation and evolution of these planets.
“Our findings are consistent with observations of exoprotoplanetary disks that imply rapid planetesimal formation across radial distances.” – Dr. Ben Rider-Stokes
This research highlights the need for a reevaluation of existing theories regarding the accretion processes that led to the formation of planetary bodies in the early solar system.
Challenges to Established Beliefs
The impact of this research goes far beyond the dollar signs. If rocky planets did indeed all form around the same time, that suggests a much more orderly process to their formation. This undermines the earlier notion of the solar system’s formation dynamics. This questions the widely held assumption that how close to the sun a planet was located determined when it formed.
In light of these results, researchers should rethink models that have traditionally gone unquestioned in planetary sciences. The simple idea of staggered formation periods for inner and outer planets has been very important. It informs our understanding of solar system formation. Dr. Rider-Stokes and his team made a strong case. This evidence calls for a wider re-evaluation of the current paradigms used in planetary science.
A Step Towards New Discoveries
Research conducted on Northwest Africa 12264 has provided important new insights into the conditions present as our solar system formed. Beyond revealing past epochs of cosmic evolution, it opens the door to thrilling future research. Determining the age and chemical make-up of meteorites can provide key insights into what the conditions were like in the early solar system.
As scientists pour over meteorites, they will tease out more evidence in order to discover more about the processes that created our celestial neighborhood. The implications from Northwest Africa 12264 are a strong reminder of the complexity and dynamism involved in planetary formation, which as we know is a rather chaotic process.