Probing the early stages of shock-induced chondritic meteorite formation at the mesoscale.

ABSTRACT: Chondritic meteorites are fragments of asteroids, the building blocks of planets, that retain a record of primordial processes. Important in their early evolution was impact-driven lithification, where a porous mixture of millimetre-scale chondrule inclusions and sub-micrometre dust was compacted into rock. In this Article, the shock compression of analogue precursor chondrite material was probed using state of the art dynamic X-ray radiography. Spatially-resolved shock and particle velocities, and shock front thicknesses were extracted directly from the radiographs, representing a greatly enhanced scope of data than could be measured in surface-based studies. A statistical interpretation of the measured velocities showed that mean values were in good agreement with those predicted using c

SUBMITTER: Rutherford ME 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5448141 | biostudies-literature | 2017 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature