Thermal evolution and sintering of chondritic planetesimals

Aims. Radiometric ages for chondritic meteorites and their components provide information on the accretion timescale of chondrite parent bodies, and on cooling paths within certain areas of these bodies. However, to use this age information for constraining the internal structure, and the accretion and cooling history of the chondrite parent bodies, the empirical cooling paths obtained by dating chondrites must be combined with theoretical models of the thermal evolution of planetesimals. Important parameters in such thermal models include the initial abundances of heat-producing short-lived radionuclides (26Al and 60Fe), which are determined by the accretion timescale and the terminal size, chemical composition and physical properties of the chondritic planetesimals. The major aim of this study is to assess the effects of sintering of initially porous material on the thermal evolution of planetesimals, and to constrain the values of basic parameters that determined the structure and evolution of the H chondrite parent body.