¹John P. Grotzinger, ²Joy A. Crisp, ²Ashwin R. Vasavada, MSL Science Team
¹Division of Geological and Planetary Sciences, California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
E-mail: grotz@gps.caltech.edu
²Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology
Pasadena, CA 91109, USA

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Reference
Grotzinger JP, Crisp JA, Vasavada AR, MSL Science Team (2015) Curiosity’s Mission of Exploration at Gale Crater, Mars. Elements 11, 19-26
Link to Article [doi: 10.2113/gselements.11.1.19]

¹Roger C. Wiens, ²Sylvestre Maurice, MSL Science Team
¹Los Alamos National LaboratoryLos Alamos, NM 87545, USA
²Institut de Recherche en Astrophysique et Planétologie
Toulouse, France

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Reference
Wiens RC, Maurice S, MSL Science Team (2015) ChemCam: Chemostratigraphy by the First Mars Microprobe. Elements 11, 33-38
Link to Article [doi: 10.2113/gselements.11.1.33]

¹Ralf Gellert, ²Benton C. Clark III, MSL and MER Science Teams
¹Department of Physics, University of Guelph
Guelph, ON N1G 2W1, Canada
E-mail: rgellert@uoguelph.ca
²Space Science Institute, Boulder, CO 80301, USA

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Reference
Gellert R, Clark III BC, MSL and MER Science Teams (2015) In Situ Compositional Measurements of Rocks and Soils with the Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer on NASA’s Mars Rovers. Elements 11, 39-44
Link to Article [doi: 10.2113/gselements.11.1.39]

¹Robert T. Downs, MSL Science Team
¹Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona
Tucson, AZ 85721-0077, USA

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Reference
Downs RT, MSL Science Team (2015) Determining Mineralogy on Mars with the CheMin X-Ray Diffractometer. Elements 11, 45-50
Link to Article [doi: 10.2113/gselements.11.1.45]

¹Paul R. Mahaffy, ²Pamela G. Conrad, MSL Science Team
¹Planetary Environments Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA
²Planetary Environments Laboratory, NASA Goddard Space Flight Center
Greenbelt, MD 20771, USA

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Reference
Mahaffy PR, Conrad PG, MSL Science Team (2015) Volatile and Isotopic Imprints of Ancient Mars. Elements 11, 51-56

Link to Article [10.2113/gselements.11.1.51]

^1,2Tu-Han Luu, ³Edward D. Young, ^4,5Matthieu Gounelle, ²Marc Chaussidon
¹Centre de Recherches Pétrographiques et Géochimiques (CRPG) – Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers CNRS – Université de Lorraine – UMR 7358, 54501 Vandoeuvre-lès-Nancy Cedex, France;
²Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris (IPGP), CNRS UMR 7154, Sorbonne Paris Cité, 75238 Paris Cedex 05, France;
³Department of Earth, Planetary, and Space Sciences, University of California, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567;
⁴Institut de Minéralogie et de Physique des Milieux Condensés, Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle, Sorbonne Universités, CNRS, Université Pierre et Marie Curie & L’Institut de Recherche pour le Développement, 75005 Paris, France; and
⁵Institut Universitaire de France, 75005 Paris, France

Chondritic meteorites are made of primitive components that record the first steps of formation of solids in our Solar System. Chondrules are the major component of chondrites, yet little is known about their formation mechanisms and history within the solar protoplanetary disk (SPD). We use the reconstructed concentrations of short-lived 26Al in chondrules to constrain the timing of formation of their precursors in the SPD. High-precision bulk magnesium isotopic measurements of 14 chondrules from the Allende chondrite define a 26Al isochron with 26Al/27Al = 1.2(±0.2) × 10−5 for this subset of Allende chondrules. This can be considered to be the minimum bulk chondrule 26Al isochron because all chondrules analyzed so far with high precision (∼50 chondrules from CV and ordinary chondrites) have an inferred minimum bulk initial (26Al/27Al) ≥ 1.2 × 10−5. In addition, mineral 26Al isochrons determined on the same chondrules show that their formation (i.e., fusion of their precursors by energetic events) took place from 0 Myr to ∼2 Myr after the formation of their precursors, thus showing in some cases a clear decoupling in time between the two events. The finding of a minimum bulk chondrule 26Al isochron is used to constrain the astrophysical settings for chondrule formation. Either the temperature of the condensation zone dropped below the condensation temperature of chondrule precursors at ∼1.5 My after the start of the Solar System or the transport of precursors from the condensation zone to potential storage sites stopped after 1.5 My, possibly due to a drop in the disk accretion rate.

Reference
Luua T-H, Young ED, Gounelle M, Chaussidon M (2015) Short time interval for condensation of high-temperature silicates in the solar accretion disk. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 112,5, 1298–1303
Link to Article [doi: 10.1073/pnas.1414025112]