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Rhenium-osmium-isotope constraints on the age of iron meteoritesRhenium and osmium concentrations and the osmium isotopic compositions of iron meteorites were determined by negative thermal ionization mass spectrometry. Data for the IIA iron meteorites define an isochron with an uncertainty of approximately +/-31 million years for meteorites about 4500 million years old. Although an absolute rhenium-osmium closure age for this iron group cannot be as precisely constrained because of uncertainty in the decay constant of Re-187, an age of 4460 million years ago is the minimum permitted by combined uncertainties. These age constraints imply that the parent body of the IIAB magmatic irons melted and subsequently cooled within 100 million years after the formation of the oldest portions of chondrites. Other iron meteorites plot above the IIA isochron, indicating that the planetary bodies represented by these iron groups may have cooled significantly later than the parent body of the IIA irons.
Document ID
19920045633
Acquisition Source
Legacy CDMS
Document Type
Reprint (Version printed in journal)
Authors
Horan, M. F.
(NASA Headquarters Washington, DC United States)
Morgan, J. W.
(USGS Reston, VA, United States)
Walker, R. J.
(Maryland, University College Park, United States)
Grossman, J. N.
(USGS Reston, VA, United States)
Date Acquired
August 15, 2013
Publication Date
February 28, 1992
Publication Information
Publication: Science
Volume: 255
ISSN: 0036-8075
Subject Category
Lunar And Planetary Exploration
Accession Number
92A28257
Distribution Limits
Public
Copyright
Other

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