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Updated: Aug 26, 2026

Simulation of the Planetary Interior Differentiation Processes in the Laboratory
Published on: November 15, 2013
Paleomagnetic evidence for a nebular magnetic field from calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions
Cauê S Borlina1, Benjamin P Weiss1, Xue-Ning Bai2
1Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02139.
Abstract:
The initial stage of planet formation is expected to take place in a nascent protoplanetary disk (PPD) accreting onto the protostar embedded in an infalling envelope. This stage is likely accompanied by the formation of high-condensation temperature solids resembling calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs), the oldest known solar system solids. However, it is unknown whether magnetism and/or gravity dominantly drove accretion in the youngest evolutionary stages of PPDs and the solar nebula. Here we report paleomagnetic measurements of CAIs indicating that they record a nebular magnetic field of ∼150 to 600 μT. This intensity is consistent with magnetic fields playing a key role driving disk accretion while also heating the very inner disk to 103 K at the earliest stages of solar system formation.
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