The hydrology of carbonaceous chondrite parent bodies and the evolution of planet progenitors

Abstract

Oxygen isotope ratio data from carbonaceous chondrites are explained if aqueous fluids flowed from high to low temperatures within the parent objects of these primitive meteorites. Recognition of ancient hydrological activity on primitive asteroid precursors affords a new class of constraints on the heat sources (ages?) and sizes of planet precursors in the early Solar System based on the geological evolution of planetesimals.