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Nature 441, 416-417 (25 May 2006) | doi:10.1038/441416a; Published online 24 May 2006

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Meteoritics: How to make a chondrule

Steve Desch1

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Chondrules, the stony, seed-like grains in meteorites, were formed when some event melted rock in the solar nebula. The latest analyses narrow the possible 'when', 'where' and 'how' of that process.

Open up almost any stony meteorite, as scientists have been doing for more than 200 years1, and you will find hundreds of millimetre-sized bits of rock. These 'chondrules' (named after the Greek for seeds) were formed at the birth of the Solar System, and as such potentially bear witness to conditions — pressures, temperatures, chemical composition and so on — in the solar nebula.

  1. Steve Desch is in the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Arizona State University, Tempe, Arizona 85287-1504, USA.
    Email: steve.desch@asu.edu

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