Magnetic patterns hidden in meteorites reveal early Solar System
dynamics

Date:
August 11, 2021
Source:
Hokkaido University
Summary:
Researchers have developed a novel technique to investigate the
dynamics of the early Solar System by analyzing magnetites in
meteorites utilizing the wave nature of electrons.



FULL STORY ========================================================================== Researchers have developed a novel technique to investigate the dynamics
of the early Solar System by analyzing magnetites in meteorites utilizing
the wave nature of electrons.


========================================================================== Within meteorites, the magnetic fields associated with the particles
that make up the object can act as a historical record. By analyzing such magnetic fields, scientists can deduce the probable events that affected
the object and reconstruct a time-lapse of what events occurred on the meteorite and when.

"Primitive meteorites are time capsules of primordial materials formed
at the beginning of our Solar System," said Yuki Kimura, an associate
professor at the Institute of Low Temperature Science at Hokkaido
University in Japan who led the study. "To understand the physical and
chemical history of the Solar System, it is crucial to analyze various
types of meteorites with different origins." While there are many
meteorites available for study here on Earth, most of them originated
from the asteroid belt, between Mars and Jupiter. These samples are used
to study what the early Solar System looked like. However, it becomes
difficult to reconstruct events that happened farther out in the Solar
System, well past the asteroid belt.

This is where the research team took great strides in understanding outer
Solar System dynamics soon after the system formed. The paper, published
in The Astrophysical Journal Letters, details a novel technique to study
the remnant magnetization of particles in the Tagish Lake meteorite,
believed to have been formed in the cold outer Solar System.

Using the technique, together with numerical simulation, the team
showed that the parent body of the Tagish Lake meteorite was formed in
the Kuiper Belt, a region in the outer Solar System, sometime around
3 million years after the first Solar System minerals formed. It then
moved to the orbit of the asteroid belt as a result of the formation
of Jupiter. The magnetite was formed when the parent body was heated
to about 250DEGC by radiogenic heating and an energetic impact which is
thought to have occurred during the body's transit from the Kuiper belt
to the Asteroid belt.

"Our results help us infer the early dynamics of Solar System bodies that occurred several million years after the formation of the Solar System,
and imply a highly efficient formation of the outer bodies of the Solar
System, including Jupiter," says Kimura.

The new technique, called "nanometer-scale paleomagnetic electron
holography," involves using the wave nature of electrons to examine their interference patterns, known as a hologram, to extract high resolution information from the structure of the meteorites. This high-resolution technique adds another crucial tool to the toolbox of researchers working
to understand the early dynamics of the entire Solar System.

Armed with their new technique, the team hopes to apply it to more
samples, including samples from an asteroid still in orbit around the Sun, called Ryugu.

Kimura detailed their ongoing research plan: "We are
analyzing the samples that Hayabusa 2 brought back from the
asteroid Ryugu. Our nanometer-scale paleomagnetic method
will unveil a detailed history of the early Solar System." ========================================================================== Story Source: Materials provided by Hokkaido_University. Note: Content
may be edited for style and length.


========================================================================== Journal Reference:
1. Yuki Kimura, Kazuo Yamamoto, Shigeru Wakita. Electron Holography
Details
the Tagish Lake Parent Body and Implies Early Planetary Dynamics
of the Solar System. The Astrophysical Journal Letters, 2021; 917
(1): L5 DOI: 10.3847/2041-8213/ac13a8 ==========================================================================

Link to news story: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2021/08/210811100810.htm

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