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Planetary science

Birth of a Solar System

Nature volume 418, pages 924–925 (2002)Cite this article

Radioisotope dating of meteorites suggests that planets formed in the Solar System over shorter timescales than had been thought. There are consequences for how the Moon formed, but is this the final word?

Fortunately for those who attempt to trace the origins of our Solar System, when the primitive solar nebula and planetary bodies began to form there were radioactive nuclei with a wide range of half-lives present. The detection of these nuclei and their decay products, particularly in meteoritic rocks, is a useful tool for working out when various features of the planetary system formed.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. the Lunar and Planetary Laboratory, University of Arizona, Tucson, 85721, Arizona, USA

    A. G. W. Cameron

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  1. A. G. W. Cameron
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Correspondence to A. G. W. Cameron.

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Cameron, A. Birth of a Solar System. Nature 418, 924–925 (2002). https://doi.org/10.1038/418924a

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/418924a

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