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Isotopically anomalous nitrogen in primitive meteorites

Abstract

The extreme enrichments in 14N (up to 48%) found in acid resistant residues of the Allende and Murchison meteorites cannot be attained by normal Solar System processes and must therefore be due to stellar nucleosynthesis. Consequently, the xenon component enriched in the heavy isotopes associated with the light nitrogen very probably was made by stellar nucleosynthesis rather than by fission of an extinct superheavy element.

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Lewis, R., Anders, E., Wright, I. et al. Isotopically anomalous nitrogen in primitive meteorites. Nature 305, 767–771 (1983). https://doi.org/10.1038/305767a0

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