Oxygen isotope variation in stony-iron meteorites

Greenwood, R. C.; Franchi, I.A.; Jambon, A.; Barrat, J.A. and Burbine, T.H. (2006). Oxygen isotope variation in stony-iron meteorites. Science, 313(5794) pp. 1763–1765.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1126/science.1128865

Abstract

Asteroidal material, delivered to Earth as meteorites, preserves a record of the earliest stages of planetary formation. High-precision oxygen isotope analyses for the two major groups of stony-iron meteorites (main-group pallasites and mesosiderites) demonstrate that each group is from a distinct asteroidal source. Mesosiderites are isotopically identical to the howardite-eucrite-diogenite clan and, like them, are probably derived from the asteroid 4 Vesta. Main-group pallasites represent intermixed core-mantle material from a single disrupted asteroid and have no known equivalents among the basaltic meteorites. The stony-iron meteorites demonstrate that intense asteroidal deformation accompanied planetary accretion in the early Solar System.

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