Chondrules are millimetre-sized spherules (mostly silicate) that dominate the texture of primitive meteorites¹. Their formation mechanism is debated, but their sheer abundance suggests that the mechanism was both energetic and ubiquitous in the early inner Solar System². The processes suggested—such as shock waves, solar flares or nebula lightning^{3, 4, 5, 6, 7}—operate on different length scales that have been hard to relate directly to chondrule properties. Chondrules are depleted in volatile elements, but surprisingly they show little evidence for the associated loss of lighter isotopes one would expect⁸. Here we report a model in which molten chondrules come to equilibrium with the gas that was evaporated from other chondrules, and which explains the observations in a natural way. The regions within which the chondrules formed must have been larger than 150–6,000 km in radius, and must have had a precursor number density of at least 10 m^-3. These constraints probably exclude nebula lightning, and also make formation far from the nebula midplane problematic. The wide range of chondrule compositions may be the result of different combinations of the local concentrations of precursors and the local abundance of water ice or vapour.

1. Space Science Division, Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, California 94035, USA
2. Department of Terrestrial Magnetism, Carnegie Institution of Washington, Washington DC 20015, USA

Correspondence to: Jeffrey N. Cuzzi¹ Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to J.N.C. (Email: jcuzzi@mail.arc.nasa.gov).

Received 5 January 2006 | Accepted 17 April 2006

MORE ARTICLES LIKE THIS

These links to content published by NPG are automatically generated.