Magnetic Field In Meteorite Provides Clues About Formation of Solar System

An anonymous reader writes Scientists have discovered a meteorite that provides evidence that intense magnetic fields caused the formation of the solar system. A meteorite called Semarkona crashed in northern India in 1940 and is now being studied for signs of primordial magnetic fields. Lead researcher, Roger Fu, a planetary scientist at MIT says: "It's a very primitive meteorite, which means that since it formed about 4.5 billion years ago, not much has happened to it, this means it preserves the properties it had when it first formed, helping shed light on that time." From the article: "This meteorite is made up of mostly tiny round pellets known as chondrules, which formed droplets that quickly cooled in space. According to the study, the scientists focused on these chondrules that possessed iron-bearing minerals, known as dusty olivine crystals, and if they appeared to have a magnetic field present while they were cooling, then the magnetic properties of these crystals might have recorded the strength of the magnetic fields."

Comments

Because annealing doesn't affect matnetism

[disposable60]

It's not like the annealing heat of descent wouldn't cause the material to take on the local field, right?

Re:Because annealing doesn't affect matnetism

[jeffb (2.718)]

Think about how long it takes a meteor to descend through the atmosphere and decelerate to terminal velocity. It's a few seconds.

Now, think about how quickly metal or rock conducts heat, and how quickly heat dissipates into moving air or solid ground.

Nearly all the object's kinetic energy goes into compression heating of the atmosphere. Of what's left, nearly all goes into ablating the object's surface. When the object hits, its interior is still cold.