Titanium isotope source relations and the extent of mixing in the proto-Solar nebula examined by Independent Component Analysis

Abstract

The Ti isotope variations observed in hibonites represent some of the largest isotope anomalies observed in the solar system. Titanium isotope compositions have previously been reported for a wide variety of different early solar system materials, including calcium, aluminum rich inclusions (CAIs) and CM hibonite grains, some of the earliest materials to form in the solar system, and bulk meteorites which formed later. These data have the potential to allow mixing of material to be traced between many different regions of the early solar system. We have used independent component analysis to examine the mixing end-members required to produce the compositions observed in the different data sets. The independent component analysis yields results identical to a linear regression for the bulk meteorites. The components identified for hibonite suggest that most of the grains are consistent with binary mixing from one of three highly anomalous nucleosynthetic sources. Comparison of these end-members show that the sources which dominate the variation of compositions in the meteorite parent body forming regions was not present in the region in which the hibonites formed. This suggests that the source which dominates variation in Ti isotope anomalies between the bulk meteorites was not present when the hibonite grains were forming. One explanation is that the bulk meteorite source may not be a primary nucleosynthetic source but was created by mixing two or more of the hibonite sources. Alternatively, the hibonite sources may have been diluted during subsequent nebula processing and are not a dominant solar system signatures.