Physical Sciences and Mathematics Commons^™

Aluminum-26: A Canonized Cosmochemical Conundrum, John Anton

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This study focuses on the challenges associated with the historical development of the interpretative role of ²⁶Al as both a thermodynamic contributor to planetesimal formation processes and an acutely precise chronometer of protoplanetary disk events. Conventional thought asserts that ²⁶Mg concentrations can occur as isotopic excesses in meteorites and represent the daughter product of ²⁶Al, a radioactive form of aluminum (t_½ = ~0.73 ka). The greatest ²⁶Mg concentrations generally occur in calcium aluminum inclusions (CAIs), meteoric constituents considered among the oldest known materials in the Solar System whose formation appear to predate the less refractory …