Total Mass of Ordinary Chondrite Matter Originally Present in the Solar System

Abstract

Recently, I reported the discovery of a new fundamental relationship of the major elements (Fe, Mg, Si) of chondrites that admits the possibility that ordinary chondrite meteorites are derived from two components, a relatively oxidized and undifferentiated, primitive component and a somewhat differentiated, planetary component, with oxidation state like the highly reduced enstatite chondrites, which I suggested was identical to Mercury's complement of lost elements. Subsequently, on the basis of that relationship, I derived expressions, as a function of the mass of planet Mercury and the mass of its core, to estimate the mass of Mercury's lost elements, the mass of Mercury's alloy and rock protoplanetary core, and the mass of Mercury's gaseous protoplanet. Here, on the basis of the supposition that Mercury's complement of lost elements is in fact identical to the planetary component of ordinary chondrite formation, I estimate, as a function of Mercury's core mass, the total mass of ordinary chondrite matter originally present in the Solar System. Although Mercury's mass is well known, its core mass is not, being widely believed to be in the range of 70 to 80 percent of the planet mass. For a core mass of 75 percent, the calculated total mass of ordinary chondrite matter originally present in the Solar System amounts to 1.83E24 kg, about 5.5 times the mass of Mercury. That amount of mass is insufficient in itself to form a planet as massive as the Earth, but may have contributed significantly to the formation of Mars, as well as adding to the veneer of other planets, including the Earth. Presently, only about 0.1 percent of that mass remains in the asteroid belt.