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Small differences in the ratio of neodymium-142 to neodymium-144 in early formed mantle reservoirs in planetary bodies are the result of in situ decay of the extinct radionuclide samarium-146 and can be used to constrain early planetary differentiation and therefore the time scale of planetary accretion. The martian meteorite Nakhla (approximately 1.3 billion years old), the type sample of the nakhlite subgroup of the Shergottite-Nakhlite-Chassigny (SNC) meteorites, exhibits a 59 +/- 13 parts per million excess in the ratio of neodymium-142 to neodymium-144 relative to normal neodymium. This anomaly records differentiation in the martian mantle before 4539 million years ago and implies that Mars experienced no giant impacts at any time later than 27 million years after the origin of the solar system.

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— Neodymium, strontium, and chromium isotopic studies of the LEW86010 angrite established its absolute age and the formation interval between its crystallization and condensation of Allende CAIs from the solar nebula. Pyroxene and phosphate were found to contain ∼98% of its Sm and Nd inventory. A conventional 147Sm‐143Nd isochron yielded an age of 4.53 ± 0.04 Ga (2 σ) and ∍143 Nd = 0.45 ± 1.1. An 146Sm‐142Nd isochron gives initial 146Sm/144Sm = 0.0076 ± 0.0009 and ∍143 Nd = −2.5 ± 0.4. The Rb‐Sr analyses give initial 87Sr/86Sr (I87Sr) = 0.698972 ± 8 and 0.698970 ± 18 for LEW and ADOR, respectively, relative to 87Sr/86Sr = 0.71025 for NBS987. The difference, ΔI87Sr, between I87Sr for the angrites and literature values for Allende CAIs, corresponds to ∼9 Ma of growth in a solar nebula with a CI chondrite value of 87Rb/86Sr = 0.91, or ∼5 Ma in a nebula with solar photospheric 87Rb/86Sr = 1.51. Excess 53Cr from extinct 53Mn (t1/2 = 3.7 Ma) in LEW86010 corresponds to initial 53Mn/55Mn = 1.44 ± 0.07 × 10−6 and closure to Cr isotopic homogenization 18.2 ± 1.7 Ma after formation of Allende inclusions, assuming initial 53Mn/55Mn = 4.4 ± 1.0 × 10−5 for the inclusions as previously reported by the Paris group (Birck and Allegre, 1988). The 146Sm/144Sm value found for LEW86010 corresponds to solar system initial (146Sm/144Sm)o = 0.0080 ± 0.0009 for crystallization 8 Ma after Allende, the difference between Pb‐Pb ages of angrites and Allende, or 0.0086 ± 0.0009 for crystallization 18 Ma after Allende, using the Mn‐Cr formation interval. The isotopic data are discussed in the context of a model in which an undifferentiated “chondritic” parent body formed from the solar nebula ∼2 Ma after Allende CAIs and subsequently underwent differentiation accompanied by loss of volatiles. Parent bodies with Rb/Sr similar to that of CI, CM, or CO chondrites could satisfy the Cr and Sr isotopic systematics. If the angrite parent body had Rb/Sr similar to that of CV meteorites, it would have to form slightly later, ∼2.6 Ma after the CAIs, to satisfy the Sr and Cr isotopic systematics.