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Science 8 February 2002:
Vol. 295. no. 5557, pp. 1051 - 1054
DOI: 10.1126/science.1068200
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Reports

Existence of an 16O-Rich Gaseous Reservoir in the Solar Nebula

Alexander N. Krot,1* Kevin D. McKeegan,2 Laurie A. Leshin,3 Glenn J. MacPherson,4 Edward R. D. Scott1

Carbonaceous chondrite condensate olivine grains from two distinct petrographic settings, calcium-aluminum-rich inclusion (CAI) accretionary rims and amoeboid olivine aggregates (AOAs), are oxygen-16 (16O) enriched at the level previously observed inside CAIs. This requires that the gas in the nebular region where these grains condensed was 16O-rich. This contrasts with an 16O-poor gas present during the formation of chondrules, suggesting that CAIs and AOAs formed in a spatially restricted region of the solar nebula containing 16O-rich gas. The 16O-rich gas composition may have resulted either from mass-independent isotopic chemistry or from evaporation of regions with enhanced dust/gas ratios, possibly in an X-wind environment near the young Sun.

1 Hawaii Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA.
2 Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA.
3 Department of Geological Sciences, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-1404, USA.
4 Department of Mineral Sciences, U.S. National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, DC 20560-0119, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: sasha{at}higp.hawaii.edu

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
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