image: This is a false-color compositional X-ray image of the rim and margin of a ~4.6 billion-year-old calcium aluminum refractory inclusion (CAI) from the Allende carbonaceous chondrite. The core extends well beyond the field of view to the upper left consists of melilite, spinel and perovskite. The rim consists of a sequence of mono-mineral layers a few micrometers thick (hibonite, perovskite, spinel, melilite/sodalite, pyroxene, and olivine). A spinel-rich micro-inclusion appears to have been entrapped while the rim was forming. This image relates to an article that appeared in the March 4, 2011, issue of Science, published by AAAS. The study, by Dr. Justin Simon at NASA Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, and University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues was titled, "Oxygen Isotope Variations at the Margin of a CAI Records Circulation Within the Solar Nebula." view more
Credit: Image by Erick Ramon and Justin Simon