Ancient Meteorites Reveal a Powerful Force Behind the Solar System

Meteorite DOM 08006 Preserves Solar System History

For decades, researchers relied primarily on gravity to explain how an enormous, swirling cloud of gas and dust collapsed into a flat protoplanetary disk. Now, a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences points to magnetic forces as a vital partner in that transformation. MIT researchers analyzed microscopic calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions—known as CAIs—found inside Dominion Range 08006 (DOM 08006), a meteorite discovered on the East Antarctic Ice Sheet in 2008.

DOM 08006 stands out among space rocks because of its unusually pristine condition. While most meteorites underwent extensive heating, water alteration, and asteroid-belt collisions over 4.5 billion years, DOM 08006 escaped widespread alteration. “Other meteorites went through many different processes over this 4.5 billion year history,” says Benjamin Weiss, the Robert R. Shrock Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT. That rare preservation allowed the team to probe mineral grains formed during the solar system’s initial 200,000 years.

Measuring Ancient Magnetic Fields With High-Tech Instruments

To read the magnetic signature locked inside these ancient crystals, researchers isolated tiny iron-bearing mineral grains smaller than a human hair. When these metal particles cooled from extreme temperatures near the infant sun, they recorded the strength and direction of the surrounding magnetic environment like microscopic compass needles.

Using ultra-sensitive SQUID microscopes and quantum diamond microscopes, the MIT-led team detected remanent magnetization within five extracted CAIs. The measurements indicate an early solar magnetic field ranging from 150 to 600 microteslas. That intensity dwarfs modern Earth’s magnetic field by a factor of three to twelve, according to the study’s data.

“We think these kinds of magnetic fields were helping to move gas from the protoplanetary disk, in toward this central star, the sun,” says Cauê Borlina, the study’s first author who completed his PhD at MIT and now serves as an assistant professor at Purdue University. Borlina adds that while gravity remained a factor, magnetic fields must be included in models of stellar and planetary assembly.

Collaborative Research Backed by NASA

The research team included co-authors Elias Mansbach and Nilanjan Chatterjee from MIT, alongside Xue-Ning Bai of Tsinghua University, Po-Yen Tung and Richard Harrison of Cambridge University, François Tissot of Caltech, and Kevin McKeegan from the University of California at Los Angeles. Financial support for the project came in part from NASA.

This physical evidence bridges a long-standing knowledge gap regarding the nebula stage of solar system evolution. As Borlina notes, scientific debate focuses primarily on whether active magnetism existed before planet formation began within the gas disk. The analysis of DOM 08006 provides tangible data supporting the presence of powerful magnetic machinery during the birth of the sun.

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