Generation of a measurable magnetic field in a metal asteroid with a rubble-pile core
Zhongtian Zhang and David Bercovici
PNAS Vol. 120 | No. 32
July 31, 2023
“Significance
Iron meteorites represent cores of differentiated objects, which are possibly the building blocks of planetary cores. The parent body of iron meteorites of the IVA group was an inward-solidified metal asteroid that possessed an internally generated magnetic field, which is paradoxical since inward solidification is unlikely to generate a magnetic field. Here, we propose a solution to this puzzle, by invoking a rubble-pile inner core that may have coalesced from cold collisional fragments after the mantle-stripping impact that formed the metal asteroid. The resulting cold inner core extracted heat from the overlying liquid, leading to solidification and light element release to drive convection and power a magnetic field, which was recorded in the cooling and thickening crust.”
“Abstract
Paleomagnetic records of iron meteorites of the IVA group suggest that their parent body (an inward-solidified metal asteroid) possessed an internal magnetic field. The origin of this magnetism is enigmatic because inward solidification typically leads to light element release from the top of the liquid, which depresses convection and dynamo activity. Here, we propose a possible scenario to help resolve this paradox. The formation of a metal asteroid must involve a disruptive, mantle-stripping collision and the reaccretion of metal fragments. We hypothesize that a small portion of metal fragments may have substantially cooled before being reaccreted. These fragments could have formed a cold, rubble-pile inner core, which extracted heat from the liquid layer, leading to solidification and light element expulsion at the inner core boundary to power a dynamo. In the portions of the inward-growing crust that cooled below the remanence acquisition temperature, the magnetic field could be recorded.”
