One of the primary challenges in the study of planetary accretion is the fact that many tracers of the processes occurring in the early Solar System have been eliminated as a result of subsequent geologic events. Because transition metals do not show large stable isotope fractionations as a result of these events and because iron is one of the most abundant elements in the terrestrial planets, its isotopic variability has been used as a tracer of early Solar System processes.
Variations in δFe between samples from Vesta, Mars, the Moon, and Earth have been observed, and these variations cannot be explained by any known petrological, geochemical, or planetary processes, thus, it has been inferred that the observed fractionations are a result of planetary accretion. It is interesting to note that the isotopic compositions of the Earth and the Moon are much heavier than that of Vesta and Mars. This provides strong support for the giant-impact hypothesis as an impact of this energy would generate large amounts of energy, which would melt and vaporize iron, leading to the preferential escape of the lighter iron isotopes to space. More of the heavier isotopes would remain, resulting in the heavier iron isotopic compositions observed for the Earth and the Moon. The samples from Vesta and Mars exhibit minimal fractionation, consistent with the theory of runaway growth for their formations, as this process would not yield significant fractionations. Further study of the stable isotope of iron in other planetary bodies and samples could provide further evidence and more precise constraints for planetary accretion and other processes that occurred in the early Solar System.