The Provenances of Asteroids, and Their Contributions to the Volatile Inventories of the Terrestrial Planets

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C. M. O’D. Alexander, R. Bowden, M. L. Fogel, K. T. Howard, C. D. K. Herd, L. R. Nittler

Published Online July 12 2012
Science 10 August 2012:
Vol. 337 no. 6095 pp. 721-723
DOI: 10.1126/science.1223474

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Determining the source(s) of hydrogen, carbon, and nitrogen accreted by Earth is important for understanding the origins of water and life and for constraining dynamical processes that operated during planet formation. Chondritic meteorites are asteroidal fragments that retain records of the first few million years of solar system history. The deuterium/hydrogen (D/H) values of water in carbonaceous chondrites are distinct from those in comets and Saturn’s moon Enceladus, implying that they formed in a different region of the solar system, contrary to predictions of recent dynamical models. The D/H values of water in carbonaceous chondrites also argue against an influx of water ice from the outer solar system, which has been invoked to explain the nonsolar oxygen isotopic composition of the inner solar system. The bulk hydrogen and nitrogen isotopic compositions of CI chondrites suggest that they were the principal source of Earth’s volatiles.

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