The role of presolar dust in the formation of the solar system

This thesis attempts to construct an interpretive framework encompassing all of the apparently contradictory data on meteorites and other solar-system objects. The most important single difference between this new theoretical framework and the one presently popular is the explicit elimination of the assumption that the majority of the solids that make up the meteorites and terrestrial planets formed by condensation from a hot, gaseous, solar nebula. This assumption requires that the pre-existing interstellar dust evaporated during the formation of the solar system, but a growing body of isotopic data on components from primitive meteorites indicates that a considerable fraction of this presolar dust survived. The thrust of this thesis is that the primary building material for meteorites and terrestrial planets was presolar dust which survived evaporation during the formation of the solar system