Primitive Terrestrial Xenon: A Relation to Refined Composition of Solar Wind

Abstract

To explain the isotopic structure of terrestrial Xe, a hypothetical U-Xe (unrelated to uranium) was mathematically constructed using multidimensional correlation diagrams of stepwise heating data of carbonaceous chondrites [1]. The composition of U-Xe was derived without any references to solar Xe. Nevertheless U-Xe turned out to be almost identical to Solar Wind (SW) except for two heaviest isotopes ^(136)Xe and ^(134)Xe, in which U-Xe was depleted. The mismatch in these two heaviest Xe isotopes was attributed to either the presence of nearly pure Xe-H (heavy branch of Xe-HL) in the Sun or to deficit of Xe-H in the carbonaceous chondrites from which U-Xe composition has been de-rived. There are two difficulties in this approach: U-Xe has never been reproducibly observed and Xe-H and Xe-L are apparently inseparable.

Files

Additional details