Generation of a measurable magnetic field in a metal asteroid with a rubble-pile core

Abstract

Paleomagnetic records of iron meteorites of the IVA group suggest that their parent body (an inward-solidified metal asteroid) possessed an internal magnetic field. The origin of this magnetism is enigmatic because inward solidification typically leads to light element release from the top of the liquid, which depresses convection and dynamo activity. Here, we propose a possible scenario to help resolve this paradox. The formation of a metal asteroid must involve a disruptive, mantle-stripping collision and the reaccretion of metal fragments. We hypothesize that a small portion of metal fragments may have substantially cooled before being reaccreted. These fragments could have formed a cold, rubble-pile inner core, which extracted heat from the liquid layer, leading to solidification and light element expulsion at the inner core boundary to power a dynamo. In the portions of the inward-growing crust that cooled below the remanence acquisition temperature, the magnetic field could be recorded.