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Solar system

When the dust unsettles

Nature volume 440, pages 751–752 (2006)Cite this article

Two attempts to measure the isotopic composition of oxygen in the Sun from particles trapped in lunar soils give very different results. A rethink of why the Solar System is as it is might be required.

On page 776 of this issue, Ireland et al.1 report investigations of lunar soil from which they infer that, compared with other Solar System bodies, the Sun is depleted in the naturally most plentiful oxygen isotope, 16O. Just a year ago, another study2 of soils on the Moon concluded exactly the reverse. So who is right?

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Figure 1: Oxygen in the Solar System.

References

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  1. the Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, University of Hawaii at Manoa, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, 96822, Hawaii, USA

    Gary R. Huss

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  1. Gary R. Huss
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Huss, G. When the dust unsettles. Nature 440, 751–752 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1038/440751a

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