The heating history of Vesta and the onset of differentiation

TL;DR

This study models Vesta's internal heating and differentiation driven by radionuclides, showing that early formation leads to extensive melting and differentiation, with surface radiation influencing crust development.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the timing of Vesta's formation and its internal differentiation based on thermal evolution and radionuclide heating.

Findings

Vesta's differentiation occurs if formed within 1.4 Ma of 26Al injection.

Complete silicate melting happens if formed within 1 Ma, reaching 100% in some scenarios.

Surface radiation influences crust thickness and composition over time.

Abstract

In this work we study the link between the evolution of the internal structure of Vesta and thermal heating due to 26Al and 60Fe and long-lived radionuclides, taking into account the chemical differentiation of the body and the affinity of 26Al with silicates. Differentiation takes place in all scenarios in which Vesta completes its accretion in less than 1.4 Ma after the injection of 26Al into the Solar Nebula. In all those scenarios where Vesta completes its formation in less than 1 Ma from the injection of 26Al, the degree of silicate melting reaches 100 vol. % throughout the whole asteroid. If Vesta completed its formation between 1 and 1.4 Ma after 26Al injection, the degree of silicate melting exceeds 50 vol. % over the whole asteroid but reaches 100 vol. % only in the hottest, outermost part of the mantle in all scenarios where the porosity is lower than 5 vol. %. If the formation of Vesta occurred later than 1.5 Ma after the injection of 26Al, the degree of silicate melting is always lower than 50 vol. % and is limited only to a small region of the asteroid. The radiation at the surface dominates the evolution of the crust which ranges in thickness from 8 to about 30 km after 5 Ma: a layer about 3-20 km thick is composed of primitive unmelted chondritic material while a layer of about 5-10 km is eucritic.