Early solar system articles within Nature Geoscience

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  • News & Views |

    The Moon’s primordial solidification is believed to have produced a layer of dense ilmenite cumulates beneath the crust. Remnants of this layer have now been detected under the lunar nearside.

    • Peter B. James

  • All Minerals Considered |

    Carbonates are key minerals for understanding fluids and their interactions with near-surface environments. Ashley King explores their significance on Earth, and beyond.

    • Ashley J. King

  • News & Views |

    High pressures may have enabled ferric iron-rich silicate melts to coexist with iron metal near the base of magma oceans early in the history of large rocky planets like Earth. This suggests a relatively oxygen-rich atmosphere during the late stages of core formation on these planets.

    • Fabrice Gaillard

  • Article |

    Geochemical analyses of an andesitic meteorite suggest the continental-crust-like composition is due to partial melting after core formation on a differentiated parent body.

    • Robert W. Nicklas
    • , James M. D. Day
    •  & Arya Udry

  • News & Views |

    The bulk crustal porosity of the lunar highland may have been generated early in the Moon’s history by basin-forming impacts and then declined exponentially. A new porosity evolution model constrains the timing and sequence of basin formation.

    • Zhiyong Xiao

  • Article |

    Pluto’s subsurface ocean may have formed early due to accretionary heating, a comparison of thermal evolution modelling with observed tectonic structures suggests.

    • Carver J. Bierson
    • , Francis Nimmo
    •  & S. Alan Stern

  • News & Views |

    Whether Earth’s water was delivered early or late in its formation is debated. The composition of Venus’s atmosphere may indicate that late accretion, the final stage of planet formation, delivered little water to the terrestrial planets.

    • Ramon Brasser

  • Article |

    High-precision measurements suggest that the Earth and Moon have distinct oxygen isotope compositions. This implies distinct oxygen isotopic compositions of the proto-Earth and its impactor that were not fully homogenized by the Moon-forming impact.

    • Erick J. Cano
    • , Zachary D. Sharp
    •  & Charles K. Shearer

  • News & Views |

    The distribution of iron-loving elements between the mantles of the Moon and Earth may differ from established belief, suggest two studies that determine the hafnium–tungsten ratio and sulfide–silicate melt partitioning of elements in the lunar mantle.

    • Philipp Gleißner

  • Article |

    The Moon formed around 50 Myr after the Solar System, suggests a lunar silicate Hf/W ratio higher than that of Earth, from high-precision compositional analysis of lunar rock samples.

    • Maxwell M. Thiemens
    • , Peter Sprung
    •  & Carsten Münker

  • Article |

    Mesosiderite meteorites may originate from a hit-and-run impact on the parent asteroid of eucrite meteorites (probably Vesta), as mesosiderite zircon U–Pb ages are found to coincide with those for eucrites.

    • Makiko K. Haba
    • , Jörn-Frederik Wotzlaw
    •  & Maria Schönbächler

  • News & Views |

    The Moon’s isotopic composition is uncannily similar to Earth’s. This may be the signature of a magma ocean on Earth at the time of the Moon-forming giant impact, according to numerical simulations.

    • H. Jay Melosh

  • Article |

    Moon formation by a giant impact ejecting material from a magma ocean on Earth reconciles geochemical and dynamical constraints on its formation, according to numerical simulations.

    • Natsuki Hosono
    • , Shun-ichiro Karato
    •  & Takayuki R. Saitoh

  • Editorial |

    Whether the climate of early Mars was warm and wet or cold and dry remains unclear, but the debate is overheated. With a growing toolbox and increasing data to tackle the open questions, progress is possible if there is openness to bridging the divide.

  • News & Views |

    Advances in high-precision isotopic analysis have provided key constraints on the origin and early evolution of the Earth and Moon. Measurements of the isotopes of tungsten provide the most stringent constraints on this history.

    • Kaveh Pahlevan

  • Perspective |

    Ancient hydrothermal deposits formed in the Martian subsurface may be the best targets for finding evidence for ancient life on Mars, and clues about the origin of life on Earth.

    • Joseph R. Michalski
    • , Tullis C. Onstott
    •  & Sarah Stewart Johnson

  • Article |

    Niobium may be sequestered into the cores of some asteroids rather than remaining in their mantles according to measurements of meteorites and partitioning experiments. Accretion of such asteroids may explain why Earth’s mantle is depleted in niobium.

    • Carsten Münker
    • , Raúl O. C. Fonseca
    •  & Toni Schulz

  • Article |

    Impacts could have driven transient subduction events on the Hadean Earth, according to numerical simulations. The scenario reconciles evidence for tectonic activity with that for an otherwise tectonically stagnant early Earth.

    • C. O’Neill
    • , S. Marchi
    •  & W. Bottke

  • Article |

    The timing and number of large impact basins on early Mars are poorly constrained. Gravity and topographic analyses support a lull in basin-forming impacts following the main stage of accretion.

    • William F. Bottke
    •  & Jeffrey C. Andrews-Hanna

  • News & Views |

    The twin isotopic signatures of the Moon and Earth are difficult to explain by a single giant impact. Impact simulations suggest that making the Moon by a combination of multiple, smaller moonlet-forming impacts may work better.

    • Gareth S. Collins

  • Article |

    A giant impact has been proposed as being responsible for forming the Moon, but scenarios that match existing constraints are improbable. Numerical modelling now suggests that instead a series of smaller and more common impacts can explain the Earth–Moon system.

    • Raluca Rufu
    • , Oded Aharonson
    •  & Hagai B. Perets

  • News & Views |

    There is potential evidence for a stratified layer at the top of the Earth's core, but its origin is not well understood. Laboratory experiments suggest that the stratified layer could be a sunken remnant of the giant impact that formed the Moon.

    • Miki Nakajima

  • Letter |

    The Earth’s outermost core is thought to be stratified. Turbulent mixing experiments suggest that merging between the cores of projectile and planet following the Moon-forming giant impact could have produced the stratification.

    • Maylis Landeau
    • , Peter Olson
    •  & Benjamin H. Hirsh

  • News & Views |

    The two small satellites of Mars are thought to have accreted from a debris disk formed in a giant impact. Simulations suggest the moons were shepherded into formation by the dynamical influence of one or more short-lived massive inner moons.

    • Erik Asphaug

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