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    Calcium carbonate

    March 19, 2018, Categories  Chemistry/Nanotechnology

    CALCIUM CARBONATE

    ~ also known as Limestone; 471-34-1; Chalk; Calcite; Carbonic acid calcium salt (1:1); etc. is the carbonic salt of calcium. It is a common substance which can be found in rocks and is the main constituent of pearls and the shells of snails, marine organisms, and eggs. The global market for Calcium Carbonate is estimated to reach 98.7 million tons by 2020, due to the robust demand from paper and plastics end-use sectors.
    Chemical structure: CaCO3 or CCaO3. The thermodynamically stable form of CaCO3 under standard conditions is hexagonal β-CaCO3, (the mineral calcite). There are other less stable forms, they include; orthorhombic λ-CaCO3 (mineral aragonite) and μ-CaCO3 (mineral vaterite).
    Properties: calcium carbonate is a white, colorless crystal or odorless powder...
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    Mars’ Oceans formed early, possibly aided by Massive Volcanic Eruptions

    March 19, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Arabia and Deuteronilus oceans on Mars

    The early ocean known as Arabia (left, blue) would have looked like this when it formed 4 billion years ago on Mars, while the Deuteronilus ocean, about 3.6 billion years old, had a smaller shoreline. Both coexisted with the massive volcanic province Tharsis, located on the unseen side of the planet, which may have helped support the existence of liquid water. The water is now gone, perhaps frozen underground and partially lost to space, while the ancient seabed is known as the northern plains. Robert Citron images, UC Berkeley.

    A new scenario seeking to explain how Mars’ putative oceans came and went over the last 4 billion years implies that the oceans formed several hundred million years earlier and were not as deep as once thought...

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    Scientists take Multi-coloured Images with Lensless Camera

    March 19, 2018, Categories  Physics, Technology/Electronics

    NTU ground glass camera can take images in multispectrum, with potential uses in chemical sensing and food safety. Credit: Image courtesy of Nanyang Technological University

    NTU ground glass camera can take images in multispectrum, with potential uses in chemical sensing and food safety. Credit: Image courtesy of Nanyang Technological University

    A new camera technology developed by scientists from NTU Singapore can take sharp, colour images without using a lens and colour filters. Using only a piece of ground glass and a monochrome sensor, the scientists created multi-coloured images by ‘reverse engineering’ the light that is scattered by the translucent matt surface of the ground glass, thus obtaining the original image that was projected on to it.

    Since different wavelengths of light are scattered differently by the ground glass, the NTU scientists created an algorithm to reconstruct the image...

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    Rare Metals on Mars and Earth implicate Colossal Impacts

    March 19, 2018, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The surface features of the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars are very different. In this topographic map, the northern hemisphere (shown in blue) is mostly smooth lowlands and has experienced extensive volcanism. The southern hemisphere (in orange) has an older, cratered highland surface. This dichotomy could have been caused by a giant impact. Credit: University of Arizona/LPL/SwRI

    The surface features of the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars are very different. In this topographic map, the northern hemisphere (shown in blue) is mostly smooth lowlands and has experienced extensive volcanism. The southern hemisphere (in orange) has an older, cratered highland surface. This dichotomy could have been caused by a giant impact. Credit: University of Arizona/LPL/SwRI

    New research has revealed that a giant impact on Mars more than 4 billion years ago would explain the unusual amount of “iron loving” elements in the Red Planet. Planets form as small dust grains stick together and agglomerate with other grains, leading to bigger bodies termed “planetesimals...

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