¹Tamara E. Koch,¹Dominik Spahr,¹Beverley J. Tkalcec,¹Miles Lindner,¹David Merges,²Fabian Wilde,¹Björn Winkler,^1,3Frank E. Brenker
Meteoritics & Planetary Science (in Press) Link to Article [https://doi.org/10.1111/maps.13731]
¹Insitute of Geosciences, Goethe University Frankfurt, 60438 Frankfurt am Main, Germany
²Helmholtz-Zentrum Hereon, Max-Planck Strasse 1, 21502 Geesthacht, Germany
³Hawai‘i Institute of Geophysics and Planetology, School of Ocean and Earth Science and Technology, University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa, 1680 East-West Road, Honolulu, Hawai‘i, 96822 USA
Published by arrangement with John Wiley & Sons

Chondrules are thought to play a crucial role in planet formation, but the mechanisms leading to their formation are still a matter of unresolved discussion. So far, experiments designed to understand chondrule formation conditions have been carried out only under the influence of terrestrial gravity. In order to introduce more realistic conditions, we developed a chondrule formation experiment, which was carried out at long-term microgravity aboard the International Space Station. In this experiment, freely levitating forsterite (Mg2SiO4) dust particles were exposed to electric arc discharges, thus simulating chondrule formation via nebular lightning. The arc discharges were able to melt single dust particles completely, which then crystallized with very high cooling rates of >105 K h−1. The crystals in the spherules show a crystallographic preferred orientation of the [010] axes perpendicular to the spherule surface, similar to the preferred orientation observed in some natural chondrules. This microstructure is probably the result of crystallization under microgravity conditions. Furthermore, the spherules interacted with the surrounding gas during crystallization. We show that this type of experiment is able to form spherules, which show some similarities with the morphology of chondrules despite very short heating pulses and high cooling rates.