Genesis Reveals That Solar Nebula Did Not Form Inner Planets

Analysis of data collected by NASA's Genesis spacecraft reveals that the Solar System's rocky inner planets did not form from the Solar nebula that created the Sun.

The data shows that the oxygen and nitrogen composition of the Sun differs from that of the Solar System's rocky inner planets.

The Sun has a higher concentration of O₁₆, an isotope of oxygen, than the inner planets, including Earth.

The Sun and Jupiter have higher concentrations of N¹⁴ and lower concentrations of N₁₅, both isotopes of nitrogen, than the inner planets.

These discoveries mean that the inner planets of the Solar System did not form from the same material as the Sun.

Genesis was launched in August 2001 in order to study the composition of the material that is ejected from the Sun toward the Earth. This material is known as the Solar Wind.

The outer layer of the Solar System has not changed for billions of years, so by studying the Solar Wind, scientists can learn more about the nebula that became the Sun and about how the Solar System evolved.

Genesis journeyed to the L1 Lagrange point, approximately 1 million miles from Earth, and remained there for 866 days while it collected Solar Wind samples.

A sample capsule was released in September 2004 and crash landed at the Dugway, Utah Test and Training Range.