Overview
- The peer‑reviewed study, reported Tuesday, applied a novel CaTs‑liquid clinopyroxene geobarometer to the angrite NWA 12774 and found crystallization pressures of at least 17.5 kilobars.
- That pressure requires a parent body far larger than a typical asteroid, with conservative radius estimates around 1,000 kilometers and upper estimates up to about 1,800–3,300 kilometers, roughly Moon‑to‑Mars scale.
- Researchers reached the pressure result by measuring unusually aluminum‑rich clinopyroxene crystals and modeling how that mineral could form from molten rock under high pressure.
- Scientists caution the result rests on one rare sample class and on temperature, depth, and model assumptions that introduce roughly ±2 kilobar uncertainty, so independent samples and lab tests are needed to confirm the conclusion.
- If confirmed, the finding implies very rapid assembly of large protoplanets in the first few million years of the solar system and suggests those bodies were later shattered by collisions whose fragments mixed into the planets and asteroid belt, prompting calls for targeted searches of museum collections and further geochemical checks.