Al-Mg and Pb-Pb ages for individual chondrules from carbonaceous (CC) and unequilibrated ordinary (UOC) chondrites range between ∼0 and ∼3.5 Ma after CAI formation, although most chondrules have ages close to 2 Ma.
How can you tell how old a meteorite is?
Scientists typically determine the age of a rock or meteorite by using the isochron method. For purposes of illustration, consider the rubidium-strontium decay system. In this system, the radioactive parent rubidium-87 (87Rb) decays to the stable daughter isotope strontium-87 (87Sr).
What is the youngest chondrite?
They picked compositionally distinct fractions from three chondrules that were combined and regressed to define an average Pb isotopic composition of all fractions. They obtained an absolute age of 4562.68 ± 0.49 Myr, which represents the youngest chondrule age from any chondrite.
