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A new recipe for making the Earth from bodies of variable composition

Although the Earth is depleted in volatile components relative to its potential chondritic precursors, the isotopic compositions of these elements are similar in Earth and chondrites. A theory to explain these observations suggests that rocky material that formed at various temperatures, locations and times in the protoplanetary disk collected to make Earth.

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Fig. 1: Elemental composition of Earth and Vesta.

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This is a summary of: Sossi, P. A. et al. Stochastic accretion of the Earth. Nat. Astron. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01702-2 (2022).

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A new recipe for making the Earth from bodies of variable composition. Nat Astron 6, 893–894 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41550-022-01703-1

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