The Generation of Lightning in the Solar Nebula

doi:10.1006/icar.1999.6245

Icarus

Volume 143, Issue 1, January 2000, Pages 87-105

https://doi.org/10.1006/icar.1999.6245 Get rights and content

Abstract

The process that melted and formed the chondrules, millimeter-sized glassy beads within meteorites, has not been conclusively identified. Origin by lightning in the solar nebula is consistent with many features of chondrules, but no viable model of lightning has yet been advanced. We present a model demonstrating how lightning could be generated in the solar nebula which differs from previous models in two important aspects. First, we identify a new, powerful charging mechanism that is based on the differences in contact potentials between particles of different composition, a form of triboelectric charging. In the presence of fine silicate grains and fine iron metal grains, large silicate particles (the chondrules) can acquire charges ≳+10⁵e. Second, we assume that the chondrule precursor particles are selectively concentrated in clumps ∼100 km in size by the turbulent concentration mechanism described by J. N. Cuzzi et al. (1996, in Chondrules and the Protoplanetary Disk, pp. 35–43, Cambridge Univ. Press). The concentration of these highly charged particles into clumps, in a background of negatively charged metal grains, is what generates the strong electric fields.

We calculate that electric fields large enough to trigger breakdown easily could have existed over regions large enough (∼100 km) to generate very large discharges of electrical energy (∼10¹⁶ erg), assuming a lightning bolt width ≲10 electron mean-free paths. The discharges would have been sufficiently energetic to have formed the chondrules. We place constraints on the generation of lightning and conclude that it could not be generated if the abundance of ²⁶Al in chondrules was as high as the level in the calcium–aluminum-rich inclusions (CAIs). This conclusion is consistent with isotopic analyses of chondrules. This possibly implies that ²⁶Al was nonuniformly distributed in the solar nebula or that the chondrules formed several million years after the CAIs.

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Regular ArticleThe Generation of Lightning in the Solar Nebula

Abstract

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Astrophys. J.

Nonlinear stability, hydrodynamical turbulence, and transport in disks

Astrophys. J.

The structure and appearance of protostellar accretion disks: Limits on disk flaring

Astrophys. J.

The accumulation of chondritic material

Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

The formation of chondrules: Petrologic tests of the shock wave model

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Al-26 and the ionization of the solar nebula

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Chondrule size-density distributions: Predictions of turbulent concentration and comparison with chondrules disaggregated from L4 ALH85033

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The Magnetic Decoupling Stage of Star Formation.

The physics of dust coagulation and the structure of dust aggregates in space

Astrophys. J.

Collisional charging of interstellar grains

Astrophys. J.

A turbulent closure model for thin accretion disks

Astron. Astrophys.

Electromagnetic heating in the early solar nebula and the formation of chondrules

Science

Experimental Researches in Electricity.

Preferential concentration of heavy particles in a turbulent channel flow

Phys. Fluids

26Al and circumstellar envelopes

Astrophys. J.

X-ray ionization of protoplanetary disks

Astrophys. J.

Relative abundances of chondrule primary textural types in ordinary chondrites and their bearing on conditions of chondrule formation

Meteoritics

The origin and history of the metal and sulfide components of chondrules

Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta

Fundamentals of Physics.

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Scaling properties of particle density fields formed in simulated turbulent flows

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Regular Article
The Generation of Lightning in the Solar Nebula

²⁶Al and circumstellar envelopes