Live Iron-60 in the Early Solar System

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Abstract
Isotopic analyses of nickel in samples from the differentiated meteorite Chervony Kut revealed the presence of relative excesses of 60 Ni ranging from 2.4 up to 50 parts per 10 4 . These isotopic excesses are from the decay of the now extinct short-lived nuclide 60 Fe and provide clear evidence for the existence of 60 Fe over large scales in the early solar system. Not only was 60 Fe present at the time of melting and differentiation (that is, Fe-Ni fractionation) of the parent body of Chervony Kut but also later at the time when basaltic magma solidified at or near the surface of the planetesimal. The inferred abundance of 60 Fe suggests that its decay alone could have provided sufficient heat to melt small (diameters of several hundred kilometers) planetary bodies shortly after their accretion.