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Sampling and Pretreatment of Tooth Enamel Carbonate for Stable Carbon and Oxygen Isotope Analysis
Published on: August 15, 2018
The oxygen isotopic composition of the Sun inferred from captured solar wind
K D McKeegan1, A P A Kallio, V S Heber
1Department of Earth and Space Sciences, University of California-Los Angeles (UCLA), Los Angeles, CA 90095-1567, USA. mckeegan@ess.ucla.edu
Abstract:
All planetary materials sampled thus far vary in their relative abundance of the major isotope of oxygen, (16)O, such that it has not been possible to define a primordial solar system composition. We measured the oxygen isotopic composition of solar wind captured and returned to Earth by NASA's Genesis mission. Our results demonstrate that the Sun is highly enriched in (16)O relative to the Earth, Moon, Mars, and bulk meteorites. Because the solar photosphere preserves the average isotopic composition of the solar system for elements heavier than lithium, we conclude that essentially all rocky materials in the inner solar system were enriched in (17)O and (18)O, relative to (16)O, by ~7%, probably via non-mass-dependent chemistry before accretion of the first planetesimals.
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