Testing Fine-grained Rim Formation Theories With Numerical Simulations

Chondritic meteorites contain millimeter-sized solid bodies called chondrules, surrounded by a fine-grained dust matrix known as a fine-grained rim. The process by which the fine-grained rim formed in the protoplanetary disk is not fully understood. One possible answer is that high speed collisions of dust into a chondrule surface causes the dust to fracture and compact into the surface. We test this theory by making numerical simulations with the iSALE-2D shock physics code to model the impact between the dust grains and the chondrule surface. The speed of the dust impacting the chondrule surface is varied. The change in density of the chondrule and the dust is measured, which is used to measure the mass accretion of dust onto the chondrule surface. This allows us to see whether mass is gained or mass is lost depending on the collision speed, providing a clue to how the solar system formed.