Distribution of elements in the solar system

There is a remarkable agreement between the condensation temperature (the temperature at which a solid or liquid of a given species forms) and the abundance of those elements vs. planetary location. For instance, if we group the compounds we observe based on the thermodynamic equilibrium condensation temperature, you would have the following temperature scale:

K     Species
1600 Al, Ca oxides  REFRACTORY
1200 Mg Silicates, Iron metal
1000 Feldspars
750  Iron sulfide
400  Magnetite
200  Water
150  Ammonia
100  Methane
70   Liquid nitrogen, other similar gases VOLATILE

With refractory being high temperature molecules, and volatile being low temp molecules.Now if you use an adiabat (or a slight variation thereof) to decrease temperature with distance, you'll find that the chemical abundances in the planets correspond very well with the location of where a given temperature would be. This is especially true of the trace elements- if you look at the Martian meteorite trace element abundances, you'll see that the more volatile elements are in greater abundance. This is due to Mars' distance from the sun (1.52 AU as opposed to 1 AU). Likewise, the gaseous giants contain even more volatile compounds- Jupiter is rich in water, and may have formed due to the presence of the snow line, Saturn and Uranus have water and methane, Neptune is rich in Methane, Pluto and other Kuiper bodies have solid methane and N2 ice. You can add this to the list:

K     Species
1600 Al, Ca oxides  *Mercury
1200 Mg Silicates, Iron metal *Venus
1000 Feldspars *Earth
750  Iron sulfide *Mars
400  Magnetite *Asteroid Belt
200  Water *Jupiter, Saturn
150  Ammonia *Saturn, Uranus
100  Methane *Uranus, Neptune
70   Liquid nitrogen, other similar gases *Pluto, comets

Reference and general equilibrium calculations are described here, as is a temperature-radius profile: M.A. Pasek et al. 2005, Icarus, in press.

Hi Contracycle- I'm not a solar system physicist, but I'm pretty sure that matter is not blasted out of the sun very much during stellar formation, at least not enough to influence planetary evolution. The initial cloud from which the solar system was formed was nothing too special, mostly H2 and He, with a smattering of light elements. The cloud collapsed, most matter forming the sun, but with enough angular momentum to keep a significant portion of matter in a disk surrounding the protosun. This cooled and some of the regions where matter concentrated (due to condensation) later formed planets.Additionally, there's no real chemical evidence for heavier elements going farther than lighter elements. Uranus and Neptune both contain more heavy elements than Jupiter and Saturn, yet they are a significantly greater distance from the sun. Earth is also the most dense planet, so it contains the heaviest elements, yet Mercury and Venus are both closer.The phenomenon you describe is important for carbon stars, though. Carbon stars continuously expell sizable quantities of carbon-rich matter, which we observe in pre-solar grains in meteorites.