Study of melting and differentiation in iron meteorite parent bodies : How ambient temperature and abundance of ²⁶Al affect accretion times

Sammanfattning:

This bachelor thesis consists of two parts. The first part consists of a review of the theoretical background. It starts off with a shorter review on theories of the history of the early Solar System, from protostellar evolution to grain agglomeration. This is then followed by a brief summary of different kinds of meteorites, what their origins might be and the radiometric dating techniques used to determine their ages.

The second part of the thesis consists of an investigation of the possible forming times of the early planetesimals by computer simulation. These planetesimals can later become the parent bodies for iron-rich meteorites. Factors studied are ambient temperature and the abundance of the short-lived radioactive isotope ²⁶Al in the forming nebula.

The study found that the parent bodies of iron meteorites had to accrete within the first few million years after the earliest solids in the Solar System, the CAI. It also found that changes in the studied boundary conditions did extend this period, but not further than around 2.8Myrs compared to the standard 2.1Myrs.

This data compares well to other, similar, studies.