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UNDERSTANDING DYNAMICS AND MIXING IN THE SOLAR NEBULA THE NATURE OF PRESOLAR COMPONENTS PRESENT AND ORIGIN OF ROCKY BODIES INCLUDING ACCRETION AND EARLY DIFFERENTIATION IS FUNDAMENTAL TO CONSTRAINING THE ORIGIN OF OUR SOLAR SYSTEM AND ITS EARLY EVOLUTION. NUCLEOSYNTHETIC DIFFERENCES ARE PRESENT FOR CA TI CR NI SR ZR MO RU PR PD BA ND AND SM ISOTOPES INDICATING NEBULAR HETEROGENEITY AT THE INITIAL STAGES OF CONDENSATION OF ROCKY MATERIALS. RECENT EVIDENCE INDICATES A DICHOTOMY IN NEBULAR ISOTOPE COMPONENTS BETWEEN DIFFERENT GROUPS OF CHONDRITES. FOR EXAMPLE 95MO VERSUS 94MO IN CARBONACEOUS CHONDRITES (CC) SHOW A WELL-DEFINED TREND THAT IS DISTINCT FROM TRENDS FOR ORDINARY (OC) ENSTATITE (EC) AND RUMURUTITE (COLLECTIVELY CALLED THE NC TREND) CHONDRITES. THIS RESULT HAS BEEN INTERPRETED THAT THE CC AND NC GROUPS WERE FORMED IN DIFFERENT REGIONS OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM WITH HETEROGENEOUS DISTRIBUTION OF PRESOLAR MATTER OF S- AND R-PROCESS ISOTOPE COMPONENTS. OSMIUM ON THE OTHER HAND HAS SHOWN TO BE LARGELY HOMOGENEOUS FOR S- AND R-PROCESS COMPONENTS IN BULK CHONDRITES. MOST DIFFERENCES OBSERVED IN OS ISOTOPIC COMPOSITIONS IN BULK CHONDRITES HAVE BEEN INTERPRETED AS INCOMPLETE DIGESTION LEAVING BEHIND RESIDUAL S-PROCESS PRE-SOLAR GRAINS WITH LARGE ISOTOPE LEVERAGE FOR THE DISTINCT COMPONENTS. SOME VARIATIONS ARE OBSERVED IN FULLY ACCESSED BULK CHONDRITES AND NOT ATTRIBUTED TO INCOMPLETE ACCESS OF OS DURING DIGESTION. IN ADDITION NUCLEOSYNTHETIC HETEROGENEITY IN OS ISOTOPES HAS BEEN OBSERVED IN EQUILIBRATED UREILITE ACHONDRITES. THIS IS ATTRIBUTED TO MELTING IN THE PARENT BODY WHERE THE S- AND R-PROCESS COMPONENTS WERE IN DISTINCT MATERIALS BUT COULD ALSO HAVE RESULTED FROM DISTINCTIONS IN THE MATERIALS WHICH ACCRETED TO FORM THE UREILITE PARENT BODY. IN ORDER TO EXAMINE THESE ISSUES AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS TO NEBULAR DYNAMICS MIXING AND HETEROGENEITY WE WILL PERFORM HIGH-PRECISION OS ISOTOPE MEASUREMENTS USING A NEWLY REFINED MULTISTATIC TECHNIQUE THAT SIGNIFICANTLY INCREASES EXTERNAL PRECISION TO BETTER DELINEATE SUBTLE DIFFERENCES IN SAND R-PROCESS COMPONENTS. FOR THE FIRST TIME ON THE SAME FRACTIONS THAT OS IS MEASURED WE WILL MEASURE MO RU AND PD ISOTOPES TO PUT THE NUCLEOSYNTHETIC COMPONENTS OBSERVED FOR OS INTO THE CONTEXT OF THE ESTABLISHED VARIABILITY FOR THESE ELEMENTS TO EXAMINE POTENTIALLY ADDITIONAL COMPLEXITIES IN COUPLED VARIATIONS AND TO DETERMINE IF MULTIPLE S- AND R-PROCESS PRESOLAR CARRIERS WERE EXTANT AT NEBULAR CONDENSATION. THIS WILL BE APPLIED TO BULK OC S WHERE DATA ARE SPARSE BUT POTENTIALLY INDICATE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN H AND LL GROUP PARENT BODIES AND TO BULK UREILITES SHOWING STRONG DIFFERENCES IN OS ISOTOPE NUCLEOSYNTHETIC COMPONENTS. CAI S WILL BE MEASURED TO CONSTRAIN THEIR NUCLEOSYNTHETIC MAKEUP AS AN IMPORTANT RESERVOIR OF REFRACTORY ELEMENTS IN THE FIRST STAGES OF NEBULAR CONDENSATION. LEACHING/RESIDUE-COMBUSTION EXPERIMENTS WILL BE PERFORMED ON UNEQUILIBRATED CC EC AND OC. THIS EXAMINES WHETHER THE S- AND R-PROCESS COMPONENTS FOR OS MO RU AND PD ARE FROM THE SAME STELLAR ENVIRONMENTS BETWEEN THE CHONDRITE GROUPS OR WHETHER MULTIPLE NUCLEOSYNTHETIC COMPONENTS WERE DISPERSED IN THE NEBULA HETEROGENEOUSLY. THIS WILL LEAD TO A BETTER UNDERSTANDING OF THE EARLIEST HISTORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM FROM THE SEEDING OF NUCLEOSYNTHETIC COMPONENTS NEBULAR CONDENSATION ACCRETION INTO TERRESTRIAL BODIES AND THEIR EARLY DIFFERENTIATION. THIS RESEARCH IS CONSISTENT WITH THE SCOPE OF THE EMERGING WORLDS PROGRAM. OUR NEW DATA WILL PROVIDE TRANSFORMATIONAL INSIGHTS INTO HOW THE SOLAR SYSTEM FORMED AND EVOLVED FROM PROTOPLANETARY DISK FORMATION AND EVOLUTION CHEMICAL AND PHYSICAL PROCESSING OF NEBULAR DUST BULK PROPERTIES OF SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES FORMATION ACCRETION EARLY THERMAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSING AND GLOBAL DIFFERENTIATION OF SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES. SUCH DATA WILL ALSO HELP IN PLANNING FOR MISSIONS THAT WILL TARGET SPECIFIC BODIES IN OUR SOLAR SYSTEM.

$189,601FY2021National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationNASA

University Of Houston System

Investigators

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