As an example, Wadhwa and Bouvier cite the abundance of the isotope iron-60 in the proto-solar system. Iron-60 is radioactive, with a half-life of about 2.6 million years. Every 2.6 million years ...

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Credit: NASA/SDO At this stage of the solar system, the proto-Sun continued to contract and, as it did so, grew hotter. This persisted until its central temperature rose high enough to ignite the ...

Diamonds that fell to Earth inside a meteorite may contain the remnants of our solar system's first planets, protoworlds that were lost billions of years ago to extreme bombardments and collisions.

Today, the belt extends between 30 and 50 times the distance between Earth and the sun, but in the early solar system, the proto-Kuiper Belt lay much closer to the sun. Related: Lost photos ...