There are many contrasts between ice and fire in both real and fictional worlds – from the volcanoes of Iceland, to the Game of Thrones fantasy series.

These two elements were at play in the early, formative years of our Solar System, too.

In the region surrounding the early Sun, fire was represented by chondrules, tiny fragments of rock that had been formed through intense heat. For ice, there was matrix, a fine-grained and cold dust loaded with water ice and organic molecules.