Manganese—chromium isotope systematics and the development of the early Solar System

Abstract

High-precision measurements of the chromium isotope compositions of samples from meteorites reveal anomalies in the 53Cr/52Gr ratio which are believed to arise from in situ decay of the extinct short-lived nuclide 53Mn. The decay of 53Mn to 53Cr in the early Solar System provides an additional chronometer with which to constrain the formation times of the small planetary bodies from which the meteorites originated. A comparison of chromium and titanium isotope anomalies shows them to be imperfectly correlated, bearing witness to the complexity of early Solar System processes.