CO self-shielding as the origin of oxygen isotope anomalies in the early solar nebula

The abundances of oxygen isotopes in the most refractory mineral phases (calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions, CAIs) in meteorites1 have hitherto defied explanation. Most processes fractionate isotopes by nuclear mass; that is, 18O is twice as fractionated as 17O, relative to 16O. In CAIs 17O and 18O are nearly equally fractionated, implying a fundamentally different mechanism. The CAI data were originally interpreted as evidence for supernova input of pure 16O into the solar nebula1, but the lack of a similar isotope trend in other elements argues against this explanation2. A symmetry-dependent fractionation mechanism3,4 may have occurred in the inner solar nebula5, but experimental evidence is lacking. Isotope-selective photodissociation of CO in the innermost solar nebula6 might explain the CAI data, but the high temperatures in this region would have rapidly erased the signature7. Here we report time-dependent calculations of CO photodissociation in the cooler surface region of a turbulent nebula. If the surface were irradiated by a far-ultraviolet flux ∼103 times that of the local interstellar medium (for example, owing to an O or B star within ∼1 pc of the protosun), then substantial fractionation of the oxygen isotopes was possible on a timescale of ∼105 years. We predict that similarly irradiated protoplanetary disks will have H2O enriched in 17O and 18O by several tens of per cent relative to CO.