Oxygen Isotope Exchange Between Dust Aggregates and Ambient Nebular Gas

TL;DR

This paper theoretically estimates the isotope exchange timescales between dust aggregates and ambient nebular gas, revealing that for small aggregates, the exchange rate is governed by the constituent particles' timescale, impacting understanding of solar nebula evolution.

Contribution

The study provides a theoretical framework for isotope exchange timescales in dust aggregates, considering multiple processes and identifying the rate-determining step, which is novel for understanding nebular chemistry.

Findings

Exchange timescale is similar to that of constituent particles for small aggregates.

Critical aggregate radius is a few centimeters for amorphous forsterite and water vapor.

The rate-determining step depends on aggregate size and composition.

Abstract

Meteorites and their components exhibit a diverse range of oxygen isotope compositions, and the isotopic exchange timescale between dust grains and ambient gas is a key parameter for understanding the spatiotemporal evolution of the solar nebula. As dust grains existed as macroscopic aggregates in the solar nebula, it is necessary to consider the isotopic exchange timescales for these aggregates. Here, we theoretically estimate the isotope exchange timescales between dust aggregates and ambient vapor. The isotope exchange process between aggregates and ambient vapor is divided into four processes: (i) supply of gas molecules to the aggregate surface, (ii) diffusion of molecules within the aggregate, (iii) isotope exchange on the surface of constituent particles, and (iv) isotope diffusion within the particles. We evaluate these timescales and assess which one becomes the rate-determining step. We reveal that the isotope exchange timescale is approximately the same as that of the constituent particles when the aggregate radius is smaller than the critical value, which is a few centimeters when considering the exchange reaction between amorphous forsterite aggregates and water vapor.