Early solar system articles within Nature Communications

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  • Article
    | Open Access

    The homogeneity of Aluminium-26 (Al-26) isotope distribution in the accreting solar nebula is debated. Here, the authors show that the age determination of meteorite Erg Chech 002, compared with other igneous meteorites, indicates that Al-26 was heterogeneously distributed in the early Solar System.

    • Evgenii Krestianinov
    • , Yuri Amelin
    •  & Tommaso Di Rocco

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Large impacts can create deep lying porosity far away from the crater. This result explains GRAIL’s findings and suggests impacts could support widespread fluid circulation, which has implications for habitable environments on early Earth and Mars.

    • Sean E. Wiggins
    • , Brandon C. Johnson
    •  & Simone Marchi

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Formation of the Haumea family, the only collisional group of icy bodies in the Kuiper Belt, is debated. Here, the authors show that Haumea family can be explained as a results of binary merging near the end of Neptune’s orbital migration.

    • Benjamin Proudfoot
    •  & Darin Ragozzine

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Both poles of asteroid Ryugu, the target of space mission Hayabusa2, preserve the least processed material by space weathering. Here, the authors show detection of 700 nm absorption band in the polar spectra of Ryugu, that allows to constrain the hydrothermal history of its spectrally blue parent body.

    • Eri Tatsumi
    • , Naoya Sakatani
    •  & Seiji Sugita

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Lunar impact basins formed during the magma ocean solidification should have formed almost unidentifiable topographic and crustal thickness signatures, thus may escape detection. This result allows for a higher impact flux in the earliest epoch of Earth-Moon evolution.

    • K. Miljković
    • , M. A. Wieczorek
    •  & M. T. Zuber

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Through platinum metal-silicate partitioning coefficient measurements, the authors here show that platinum partitioning into metal is lowered at high pressure–temperature conditions. This finding implies that the Earth’s mantle was likely enriched in platinum immediately following the core-mantle differentiation.

    • Terry-Ann Suer
    • , Julien Siebert
    •  & Guillaume Fiquet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Here, the authors show that Earth and Moon are characterized by different vanadium isotope compositions, which is most likely resulting from vanadium isotope fractionation of the bulk silicate proto-Earth during the main stage of terrestrial core formation—followed by a canonical giant impact scenario, where 80% of the Moon originates from an impactor of chondritic composition.

    • Sune G. Nielsen
    • , David V. Bekaert
    •  & Maureen Auro

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Current models of Galactic chemical evolution under predict the phosphorus we observe in our Solar System. Here, the authors show the discovery of 15 phosphorus-rich stars with a peculiar abundance pattern that challenges the present stellar nucleosynthesis theoretical predictions, but which could explain the missing source of phosphorus in the Galaxy.

    • Thomas Masseron
    • , D. A. García-Hernández
    •  & Carlos Dafonte

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The surface of active asteroid (3200) Phaethon, parent body of the Geminid meteor shower, reaches temperatures sufficient to destabilize hydrated materials. Here, the authors show that the northern hemisphere and the equatorial region of this asteroid reveal no evidence of hydration in the near-infrared spectra.

    • Driss Takir
    • , Theodore Kareta
    •  & Tomoko Arai

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Applying first-principles molecular dynamic simulations and thermodynamic modelling, the authors suggest a vertical oxygen fugacity gradient in magma oceans of Earth, Mars, and the Moon. Consequently, the study proposes larger planets like Earth to have stronger oxidized upper mantles than smaller bodies such as Mars or the Moon.

    • Jie Deng
    • , Zhixue Du
    •  & Kanani K. M. Lee

  • Article
    | Open Access

    It remains controversial whether or not impact melt sheets produced by asteroid impacts were able to undergo large-scale igneous differentiation. Here the authors present evidence for large igneous differentiation in one of these sheets and argue that this process has contributed to the evolution and lithological diversity of the proto-crusts on terrestrial planets.

    • Rais Latypov
    • , Sofya Chistyakova
    •  & Hannu Huhma

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Achondritic meteorites can record volcanism and crust formation on planetesimals in the early Solar System. Here, the authors date the Northwest Africa 11119 meteorite with an Al-Mg age of 4564.8 ± 0.3 Ma indicating that this is the earliest evidence of silicic volcanism in the Solar System to date.

    • Poorna Srinivasan
    • , Daniel R. Dunlap
    •  & Francis M. McCubbin

  • Article
    | Open Access

    Ureilites are a type of meteorite that are believed to be derived from a parent body that was impacted in the early solar system. Here, the authors analyse inclusions within diamonds from a ureilite meteorite and find that they must have formed at above 20 GPa suggesting the parent body was Mercury- to Mars-sized.

    • Farhang Nabiei
    • , James Badro
    •  & Philippe Gillet

  • Article
    | Open Access

    One hypothesis for solar system formation is gas compression by a nearby supernova, whose traces should be found in isotopic anomalies. Here the authors show that this mechanism is viable only if the triggering event was a low-mass supernova, looking at short-lived 10Be and lack of anomalies in stable isotopes.

    • Projjwal Banerjee
    • , Yong-Zhong Qian
    •  & W C Haxton

  • Article
    | Open Access

    The origins of the Sun’s periodic activity, such as sunspot cycles, are poorly understood. McIntosh et al.posit that the rotational forcing of the activity bands comprising the 22-year magnetic cycle undergoes shorter-term variations, driving magnetic flux surges that impact solar output on those timescales.

    • Scott W. McIntosh
    • , Robert J. Leamon
    •  & Roger K. Ulrich

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