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Reproduction Experiments of Radial Pyroxene Chondrules Using a Gas-jet Levitation System under Reduced Conditions

Reproduction experiments of radial pyroxene (RP) chondrules were carried out using an Ar–H 2 or Ar gas-jet levitation system in a reducing atmosphere in order to simulate chondrule formation in the protoplanetary disk. The experiments reproduced RP-chondrule textures, consisting of sets of thin pyro...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Astrophysical journal 2024-01, Vol.961 (1), p.129
Main Authors: Watanabe, Kana, Nakamura, Tomoki, Morita, Tomoyo
Format: Article
Language:English
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Summary:Reproduction experiments of radial pyroxene (RP) chondrules were carried out using an Ar–H 2 or Ar gas-jet levitation system in a reducing atmosphere in order to simulate chondrule formation in the protoplanetary disk. The experiments reproduced RP-chondrule textures, consisting of sets of thin pyroxene crystals and mesostasis glass between crystals. However, iron partition coefficients between pyroxene and glassy mesostasis (D Fe =Fe mol% pyroxene /Fe mol% mesostasis ) in natural RP chondrules were much higher than that in the experimentally reproduced RP chondrules. The high D Fe in natural RP chondrules suggests that iron was removed from the mesostasis melt at high temperatures after the growth of pyroxene crystals. We found that many small iron-metal inclusions had formed in the mesostasis glass, indicating that FeO in the high-temperature melt of mesostasis was reduced to metallic iron, and iron in the mesostasis diffused into the newly formed metal inclusions. The formation of the iron-metal inclusions in the mesostasis was reproduced by our experiments in a reducing atmosphere, confirming that D Fe in natural RP chondrules increased after the growth of RP crystals. Therefore, the D Fe of RP chondrules can be an indicator to constrain cooling rates and redox states during chondrule formation.
ISSN:0004-637X
1538-4357
DOI:10.3847/1538-4357/ad09e7