Iron Isotope Constraints on the Structure of the Early Solar System

The recent advent of nontraditional isotopic systems has revealed that meteorites display a fundamental isotopic dichotomy between noncarbonaceous (NC) and carbonaceous (C) groups, which represent material from the inner and outer solar system, respectively. On the basis of iron isotope anomalies, this view has recently been challenged in favor of a circumsolar disk structured into three distinct reservoirs (the so-called isotopic trichotomy). In this scenario, the CI chondrites—a rare type of carbonaceous chondrites with chemical composition similar to that of the Sun’s photosphere—would sample a distinct source region than other carbonaceous chondrites, located beyond Saturn’s orbit. Here, we report a model based on the available data for both mass-dependent fractionation of Te stable isotopes and mass-independent Fe nucleosynthetic anomalies. On the basis of the Te–Fe isotopic correlation defined by all carbonaceous chondrites including CIs, we show that the NC-CC dichotomy extends to Fe isotopes. Our finding thus supports (i) the existence of only two reservoirs in the early solar system and (ii) the ubiquitous presence of CI-like dust throughout the carbonaceous reservoir. Our approach also reveals that the carrier phase of 54Fe anomalies corresponds to Fe–Ni metal beads mostly located within chondrules. Finally, we propose that the CC chondrule component records a constant mix of refractory inclusions and NC-like dust.