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At least 361 records · Page 20
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1984

Composition and origin of enstatite in E chondrites

A petrologic and electron-probe study of enstatite in six EH3, 4, and 5 chondrites, including the previously undescribed Allan Hills A77156, provides no support for Leitch and Smith's (1982) model in which crystals and liquids from two chemically distinct, partially molten planetesimals are mixed. It is found that Cr and Mn concentrations in enstatite grains in matrix and chondrules are not uniquely defined by their cathodoluminescence color. Wide variations in enstatite compositions among chondrules may partly reflect heterogeneities in the precursor material. However, correlated variations of Cr, Mn, and Fe concentrations in enstatite are probably largely due to fractionation during chondrule crystallization. The inverse correlation of petrologic type with minor element concentrations in enstatite appears to be a metamorphic effect.

Mckinley, S. G.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Tests of the lunar hypothesis

The concept that the Moon was fissioned from the Earth after core separation is the most readily testable hypothesis of lunar origin, since direct comparisons of lunar and terrestrial compositions can be made. Differences found in such comparisons introduce so many ad hoc adjustments to the fission hypothesis that it becomes untestable. Further constraints may be obtained from attempting to date the volatile-refractory element fractionation. The combination of chemical and isotopic problems suggests that the fission hypothesis is no longer viable, and separate terrestrial and lunar accretion from a population of fractionated precursor planetesimals provides a more reasonable explanation.

Taylor, S. R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

An integrated dynamical and geochemical approach to lunar origin modelling

The three major categories of models of lunar origin which explain the Moon's properties are complete and a more general scenario is presented. The model presented is as the Earth grew by planetesimal bombardment, a circumterrestrial cloud of particles was created from a combination of impact ejected mantle material and planetismals captured directly into orbit around the Earth. The compositional properties are explained two ways: (1) a few big late planetismals of diverse composition are captured in orbit and/or hit the Earth; and (2) the circumterrestrial swarm acts as a filter, preferentially capturing small weak silicate bodies, while passing large iron planetismals.

Greenberg, R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Lunar origin: role of giant impacts

The explanation that lunar origin involved giant impacts remains attractive. Large planetesimals are consistent with current accretion models, and may have been widely scattered in the early solar system; their existence is a reasonable, assumption in Moon origin models. Isotopic data require the Moon's formation primarily from local material resembling Earth's upper mantle, not material from elsewhere in the solar system. Giant impacts are stochastic, class predictable events that would provide the required type of ejected Earth mantle material without requiring large moons to form near other planets (a problem with less stochastic processes). Such material may have mixed with incoming meteorites during lunar formation, affecting lunar chemistry.

Hartmann, W. K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

On the Origin of Triton and Pluto

Lyttleton's (1936) hypothesis that Triton and Pluto originated as adjacent prograde satellites of Neptune is evaluated, and it is shown that with the presently accepted masses of Triton and Pluto-Charon, the momentum and energy exchange required to sell Triton on a retrograde orbit is impossible. The Pluto-Charon system could not have acquired its present angular momentum state during an ejection event unless a physical collision was involved, which is quite unlikely. The simplest hypothesis is that Triton and Pluto are independent representatives of large outer solar system planetesimals. Triton is simply captured, with spectacular consequences that include runaway melting of interior ices and release to the surface of clathrated CH4, CO, and N2. Condensed remnants of this protoatmosphere could account for features in Triton's unique spectrum.

Mckinnon, W. B.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Lunar Origin: Role of Giant Impacts

The explanation that lunar origin involved giant impacts remains attractive. Large planetesimals are consistent with current accretion models, and may have been widely scattered in the early solar systems; their existence is a reasonably, assumption in Moon origin models. Isotopic data require the Moon's formation primarily from local material resembling Earth's upper mantle, not material from elsewhere in the solar system. Giant impacts are stochastic, class predictable events that would provide the required type of ejected Earth mantle material without requiring large moons to form near other planets (a problem with less stochastic processes). Such material may have mixed with incoming meteorites during lunar formation, affecting lunar chemistry.

Hartmann, W. K.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Accumulation of the Terrestrial Planets

The validity of the two body approximation in calculations of planetary growth is examined. Use of this approximation is essential to practical 3 dimensional simulations of planetary growth. With regard to gravitational perturbations, the changes in semimajor axis, eccentricity, and inclination resulting from close planetesimal encounters (near 1 A.U.) out to 10 Tisserand sphere of influence radii were calculated by two and three dimensional numerical integration. These were compared with the results of treating the encounter as a two body problem, as is customary in Monte Carlo calculations of orbital evolution and in numerical and analytical studies of planetary accumulation. It is found that for values of (V/V sub e) approx. 0.35 (V = relative velocity, V = escape velocity of largest body), the two body approximation fails to describe the outcome of individual encounters. In this low velocity region, the two body gravitational focusing cross section is no longer valid.

Wetherill, G. W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Martian Terrain Ages

The cratering record in the inner Solar System shows two crater populations based on their size/frequency distributions. The heavily cratered surfaces of the Moon, Mercury and Mars all show a similar multisloped crater size distribution which represents the period of heavy bombardment. On the younger plains units of the Moon and Mars the crater size/frequency distribution has about a -3 slope over the same diameter range. The different crater population represents the accumulation of craters since the end of heavy bombardment. The high flux of the early impacting objects dominated the cratering record prior to 3.8 BY. If heavy bombardment was primarily the result of comets (1) or a disrupted planetesimal (2), then heavy bombardment ended simultaneously on all of the inner planets. If, on the other, heavy bombardment was caused by accretional remnants, then it may have extended as much as 1 BY later on Mars than on the Moon and other terrestrial planets (3). Martian surfaces can be dated relative to the end of heavy bombardment by the type of crater population superposed on them. The relative ages of surfaces within these two time divisions can be determined by crater densities.

Strom, R. G.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Conditions during formation of the Earth

The formation of the Earth starts with gravitational instabilities in the gas of primitive solar nebula, which form giant gaseous protoplanets. The envelopes of these are thermally evaporated, but solids can gravitationally settle to the center of the protoplanets, and most of the core and mantle of the Earth were formed at that time (age about 10,000 years). The protoearth then survived a period of high temperatures in the surrounding gas (age about 10 to the 5th years). While and after the gas was thermally stabilized and removed from the solar system, the Earth grew by bombardment of planetesimals and its early atmosphere was established. A late major collision led to formation of the Moon and loss of the primordial atmosphere (age about 10 to the 8th years). The present atmosphere resulted from still later accretion. The presence of this atmosphere spreads out the mantle cooling and solidification over hundreds of millions of years.

Cameron, A. G. W.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Impact processes and their implications for planetary formation and early evolution

Small impact craters dominate the geomorphology of small planetary bodies. Even Mars has extensive impact-dominated landscapes. The regoliths of the Moon and asteroids are created and maintained by impacts. It is now widely recognized that large impacts (craters 100-1000 km in diameter) are one of the major tectonic elements in the lithospheres of bodies like the Moon, Mercury, Mars and Callisto. The multiring basins these large impacts produce sometimes extend over an entire hemisphere. Such basins may have also affected tectonics during the Earth's hadean era. Although it has long been appreciated that low velocity collisions played a major role in the accretion of planetesimals into planets, recent work indicates a far more profound role for impacts. Studies of the interaction of planetary atmospheres with large impacts, begun in an effort to define the climatological effects of the K-T impactor, suggest that impacts may remove a significant fraction of a planet's atmosphere. Such removal now offers hope of explaining the puzzling systematics of the heavy noble gases in the atmospheres of the Earth, Venus, and Mars.

Melosh, H. J.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Questions about Mercury's role in comparative planetary geophysics

Problems which have arisen in formulating a mutually consistent picture of Mercury's evolution are outlined. It appears that one or more of the following widely adopted assumptions are wrong about Mercury: (1) its original composition at least approximately resulted from equilibrium condensation; (2) its magnetic field arises from a still-active dynamo; (3) its thermal evolution should have yielded early core formation followed by cooling and a global contraction approaching 20 km in the planet's radius; (4) Mercury's surface is basaltic and the intercrater plains are of volcanic origin. It is suggested that Mercury's role in comparative planetology be reevaluated in the context of an alternative timescale based on the possibility that Mercury was subjected to a continuing source of cratering projectiles over recent aeons, which have not impacted the other terrestrial planets. Although such vulcanoids have not yet been discovered, the evolution of Mercury's orbit due to secular perturbations could well have led to a prolonged period of sweeping out any intra-Mercurian planetesimals that were originally present. Mercury's surface could be younger than previously believed, which explains why Mercury's core is still molten.

Chapman, C. R.↗
NASA NTRS1984

On the origin of Triton and Pluto

Lyttleton's (1936) hypothesis that Triton and Pluto originated as adjacent prograde satellites of Neptune is evaluated, and it is shown that with the presently accepted masses of Triton and Pluto-Charon, the momentum and energy exchange required to set Triton on a retrograde orbit is impossible. The Pluto-Charon system could not have acquired its present angular momentum state during an ejection event unless a physical collision was involved, which is quite unlikely. The simplest hypothesis is that Triton and Pluto are independent representatives of large outer solar system planetesimals. Triton is simply captured, with spectacular consequences that include runaway melting of interior ices and release to the surface of clathrated CH4, CO, and N2. Condensed remnants of this protoatmosphere could account for features in Triton's unique spectrum.

Mckinnon, W. B.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Radial migration of preplanetary material - Implications for the accretion time scale problem

Radial drift of planetesimals due to density wave interaction with the solar nebula is considered. The mechanism is most effective for large masses and provides mobility over a size range where aerodynamic drag is unimportant. The process could shorten accretion time scales to O(100,000-1,000,000 years) throughout the solar system. Accumulation stalls down when growing objects are massive enough to open gaps in the gas disk. Implications of this process for current cosmogonic models are discussed.

Hourigan, K.↗
NASA NTRS1984

Rotational spectral variations of asteroid (8) Flora Implications for the nature of the S-type asteroids and for the parent bodies of the ordinary chondrites

The surface material and the surface material heterogeneities of the asteroid Flora are characterized using the best available data sets and the most sophisticated interpretive calibrations. Five spectrally derived mineralogic and patrologic properties of the surface assemblage of Flora which are relevant to whether this body is a differentiated or undifferentiated object are considered: bulk mineralogy, mafic mineral assemblage, metallic phase, pyroxene composition and structural type, and mineralogic variation. All of these properties indicate that Flora is a differentiated body. Flora is probably the residual core of an intensely heated, thermally evolved, and magnetically differentiated planetesimal which was subsequently disrupted. The present surface sample layers formed at or near the core-mantle boundary in the parent body.

Gaffey, M. J.↗
NASA NTRS1984

On the brittle-ductile behavior of iron meteorites - New experimental constraints

Impact trials were performed at the NASA vertical gun range to study low-temperature brittle-ductile transitions in meteoritic, steel and iron targets. The trials were performed to enhance the data base underlying the concept of formation of planetesimals in collisional coagulation. Impact velocities of 1.6-5.5 km/sec were used, as were temperatures from 100-300 K. Spallation was observed in the tests with meteorite samples, even at room temperature, and brittleness was enhanced at temperature below 200 C. Net mass losses were induced at the higher impact velocities. It is suggested that iron meteorite agglomerations could form in the inner solar region during nebular condensation, but would not form in farther-out regions such as the asteroid belt. The protoplanets could have an iron core, with metallicity decreasing with radius from the core, which may have happened with the earth.

Matsui, T.↗
NASA NTRS1984

FeO and H2O and the homogeneous accretion of the earth

Shock devolatilization recovery data for brunite (Mg(OH)2) shocked to 13 and 23 GPa are presented. These data combined with previous data for serpentine (Mg3Si2O5(OH)4) are used to constrain the minimum size terrestrial planet for which planetesimal infall will result in an impact generated water atmosphere. Assuming, in hydrous phyllosilicates, model calculations simulating the interaction of metallic iron with impact released free water on the surface of the accreting earth were carried out. It is assumed that the reaction of water with iron in the presence of enstatite is the prime source of the terrestrial FeO component of silicates and oxides. Lower and upper bounds on the terrestrial FeO budget are based on mantle FeO content and possible incorporation of FeO in the outer core. We demonstrate that the iron water reaction would resuit in the absence of atmospheric/hydrospheric water, if homogeneous accretion is assumed.

Lange, M. A.↗
NASA NTRS1984

The rotation of the Uranian system

The rotation of Uranus is examined for clues as to the origin of the Solar System. Both theories based on the formation of planets through the accretion of small planetesimals, and theories based on the formation of giant gaseous protoplanets through a gravitational instability in the primitive solar nebula allow for qualitative explanations of the large tilt of Uranus's equator to the orbital plane, and the fact that its satellites lie in the equatorial plane. Models of the planetary interior show that the mass ratio of ice-forming materials to rock in Uranus's interior must be more than about three if the rotation period is about 16 h. Such a large ratio seems to exclude those accretional theories that require most of the nebular gas to be heated to relatively high temperatures before being accreted into the planet.

Podolak, M.↗
NASA NTRS1985

Penecontemporaneous metamorphism, fragmentation, and reassembly of ordinary chondrite parent bodies

The thermal histories of ordinary chondrites and the canonical internal heating or onion shell models, which predict an inverse relation between the petrologic type of chondrites and the metallographic cooling rate, are reviewed. The thermal and accretional requirements of the 'metamorphosed planetesimal' model proposed by Scott and Rajan (1981) are analyzed, and an alternative model consistent with the metallographic cooling rate constraints is suggested in which ordinary chondrite parent bodies are collisionally fragmented and then rapidly reassembled before metamorphic heat has been dissipated.

Grimm, R. E.↗