Solar System was created out of candy floss
When the earliest rocks were formed in the Solar System they resembled candy floss more than the building material of planets, research has shown.
Scientists made the discovery after highly detailed analysis of a meteorite fragment from the asteroid belt between Jupiter and Mars.
The "carbonaceous chondrite" fragment was originally formed in the early Solar System when microscopic dust motes gathered around larger one millimetre grain particles.
The findings, published in the journal Nature Geoscience, show that the first solid material in the Solar System was fragile and highly porous - like candy floss.
Scientists believe that the Sun and its family of planets formed from a cloud, or "nebula", of dust and gas in which clumps gradually appeared due to the force of gravity.
This process eventually gave birth to the Earth around 4.5 billion years ago.
Dr Phil Bland, from the Department of Earth Science and Engineering at Imperial College London, said: "Our study makes us even more convinced than before that the early carbonaceous chondrite rocks were shaped by the turbulent nebula through which they travelled billions of years ago, in much the same way that pebbles in a river are altered when subjected to high turbulence in the water.
"Our research suggests that the turbulence caused these early particles to compact and harden over time to form the first tiny rocks."
The scientists used a sophisticated electron-scattering technique to study the orientation and position of individual particles in the meteorite sample.
They were able to estimate the amount of compression the rock had experienced, allowing them to deduce its original fragile structure.
"Our work is another step in the process helping us to see how rocky planets and moons that make up parts of our Solar System came into being," said Dr Bland.
Weird Science Factoid: The largest cockroach on record measured 3.81 inches in length.
Older/Newer
« Venomous stingray gets an ultrasound | Stunning video of Northern Lights »
Authors
Daniel Smith - a long time ago, in a galaxy far away just north of Watford, Daniel fancied himself as a scientist but turned out to be the worst scientist since that bloke who mapped out all those canals on Mars that turned out to be scratches on his telescope's lens. Luckily, he is now not working on the Large Hadron Collider inadvertently creating a black hole that would swallow the world but is safely behind a desk writing this blog, bringing you the fantastical underbelly of nature... weird science.
