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Science 21 August 2009:
Vol. 325. no. 5943, pp. 985 - 988
DOI: 10.1126/science.1173907
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Reports

Homogeneous Distribution of 26Al in the Solar System from the Mg Isotopic Composition of Chondrules

Johan Villeneuve,1,* Marc Chaussidon,1 Guy Libourel1,2

The timing of the formation of the first solids in the solar system remains poorly constrained. Micrometer-scale, high-precision magnesium (Mg) isotopic analyses demonstrate that Earth, refractory inclusions, and chondrules from primitive meteorites formed from a reservoir in which short-lived aluminum-26 (26Al) and Mg isotopes were homogeneously distributed at ±10%. This level of homogeneity validates the use of 26Al as a precise chronometer for early solar system events. High-precision chondrule 26Al isochrons show that several distinct chondrule melting events took place from ~1.2 million years (My) to ~4 My after the first solids condensed from the solar nebula, with peaks between ~1.5 and ~3 My, and that chondrule precursors formed as early as Formula My after.

1 Centre de Recherches Petrographiques et Geochimiques (CRPG)–Nancy Université–CNRS, UPR 2300, 15 Rue Notre-Dame des Pauvres, Boite Postale 20, 54501 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France.
2 Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Géologie (ENSG)–Nancy Université, Rue du Doyen Marcel Roubault, Boite Postale 40, 54501 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy, France.

* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: johanv{at}crpg.cnrs-nancy.fr

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THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Early Solar System Chronology.
A. M. Davis (2009)
Science 325, 951-952
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