For decades, scientists have wondered about the origin of the Conduls , mysterious spherules of millimeter size that form the main component of most meteorites falling to Earth. They are, in essence, the fundamental bricks of asteroids and, by extension, of the planets. Now, a study published in Scientific Reports by Sin-Iit Sirono and Diego Turrini proposes an elegant and violent solution: their formation was a direct side effect of Jupiter’s birth.
The Enigma of Cosmic Drops
Within the most primitive meteorites that reach Earth, we find tiny spheres of rocky material, between 0.1 and 2 millimeters, known as Conduls . These particles are incredibly abundant, constituting more than 80% of some meteorites, which suggests that they formed in a massive and fundamental process at the dawn of the solar system. Scientists consider them the basic components from which the rocky planets were formed, including Earth.
The Mystery of How They Formed
The problem is that, until now, no one had managed to convince others about how they formed. The analyses indicate that the Conduls were liquid drops that cooled at a very specific pace, between 10 and 1000 Kelvins per hour . The mystery lies in what process could melt rock on a mass scale in the cold expanse of space and then disperse it throughout.
<img alt="We believed that Guowang would be the 'Chinese Starlink': Now everything points to a megaconstellation with a different ambition" width="375" height="142" src="https://i.blogs.es/bd375e/china-satelites-portada/375_142.jpeg"/>Jupiter: The Culprit of the Cosmic Carambola
This is where the importance of this recent scientific study enters. Through complex numerical simulations, researchers have shown that the birth of the largest planet in our solar system was a cataclysmic event that unleashed chaos.
As the young Jupiter grew and its gravity became immense, it began to act like a cosmic tyrant, disturbing the orbits of planetesimals (rocky bodies of hundreds of kilometers) that surrounded it. This disturbance had profound implications for the emerging solar system.
Jupiter as the Origin of Meteorites
The model reveals that Jupiter launched planetesimals rich in volatile materials (such as water ice) from the cold outer regions of the solar system at speeds greater than 2 km/s . These frozen projectiles were catapulted toward the inner solar system, colliding with the rocky and arid planetesimals residing there.
Water Vapor as the Secret Ingredient
This is where the core of the discovery resides. Impact simulations demonstrate what happened during these high-speed collisions, underscoring instant fusion. During the clash, an immense amount of molten silicate was generated.
An explosive expansion was also detected, causing the ice contained in the planetesimal impactor to vaporize instantly due to the heat, creating a gigantic cloud of rapidly expanding gas. This gas explosion acted as a cosmic spray, dispersing the melted rock into countless tiny drops that cooled at a rate consistent with the measurements of the Conduls .
A Discovery That Illuminates Space
This mechanism explains for the first time both the millimeter size of the Conduls and their particular cooling speed—two characteristics that had been challenging to reconcile in previous models.
Jupiter’s Birth Certificate
The most fascinating consequence of this model is that it allows scientists to date Jupiter’s birth with impressive precision. According to meteorite dating, the peak of Conduls formation occurred approximately 1.8 million years after the appearance of the first solids of the Solar System, known as CAIs (Calcium-Aluminum-rich Inclusions) .
<img alt="When the first human being stepped on the moon we all believed that he had abandoned the 'Land'. We were wrong." width="375" height="142" src="https://i.blogs.es/79b113/apolo16/375_142.jpeg"/>The simulations conducted by Sirono and Turrini indicate that the production of molten rock—and, consequently, of the Conduls—spikes right around the time that Jupiter enters its *main growth phase*, also known as gas runaway . This connection allows us to conclude that Jupiter began its significant growth phase about 1.8 million years after the Solar System’s genesis.
A Conclusion that Solves Several Enigmas
This finding not only resolves an age-old mystery about our origins but also provides a timeline to calibrate the events that have shaped our cosmic neighborhood. The formation of the “bricks” of Earth was not a passive process but rather a direct consequence of the violent and chaotic birth of its gigantic neighbor, Jupiter.