Experimental Investigation of Chondrule Fine-Grained Rim Formation

There are numerous theories that attempt to explain the processes at play during the formation of a solar system. The majority of these are driven by data collected from meteorites. Inside these time capsules, one can find a snapshot of the conditions present during the protoplanetary disk phase. Interestingly, 80% of these meteorites are composed of centimeter-sized, crystalized pebbles known as chondrules. Surrounding these pebbles are “Fine-Grained Rims” (FGR’s) that in general include different features than does the surrounding matrix. FGR’s are as plentiful as the chondrules themselves and although there is no shortage of theoretical and modeling work on the subject, experimental work is sparse. This talk will cover recent experiments developed at Baylor’s Center for Astrophysics, Space Physics and Engineering Research for simulating the formation of FGR’s over time and a comparison of initial findings to previous numerical modeling results.

Liffman, K. (2019). Fine-grained rim formation – High speed, kinetic dust aggregation in the early Solar System. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 264, 118–129. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.gca.2019.08.009