Chondrule transport in protoplanetary discs

Abstract

Chondrule formation remains one of the most elusive early Solar system events. Here, we take the novel approach of employing numerical simulations to investigate chondrule origin beyond purely cosmochemical methods. We model the transport of generically produced chondrules and dust in a 1D viscous protoplanetary disc model in order to constrain the chondrule formation events. For a single formation event we are able to match analytical predictions of the memory they retain of each other (complementarity), finding that a large mass accretion rate (≳10−7 M<inf>⊙</inf> yr−1) allows for delays on the order of the disc's viscous time-scale between chondrule formation and chondrite accretion. Further, we find older discs to be severely diminished of chondrules, with accretion rates ≲10−9 M<inf>⊙</inf> yr−1 for nominal parameters. We then characterize the distribution of chondrule origins in both space and time, as functions of disc parameters and chondrule formation rates, in runs with continuous chondrule formation and both static and evolving discs. Our data suggest that these can account for the observed diversity between distinct chondrite classes, if some diversity in accretion time is allowed for.