Webb telescope data indicate a complex history for the metallic asteroid. Using data from NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope, a Southwest Research Institute-led team has confirmed hydroxyl molecules on the surface of the metallic asteroid Psyche...
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February 19, 2019,
Astronomy/Space
Researchers have discovered that carbonaceous chondrites, a class of meteorites, incorporated hydrated minerals along with organic material from the protoplanetary disk before the formation of planets. Scientists from the study published in the journal Space Science Reviews note that these meteorites played “an important role in the primordial Earth’s water enrichment” because they facilitated the transportation of volatile elements that were accumulated on the external regions of the so-called protoplanetary disk from which planets were formed more than 4.500 years ago. Earth was formed in an environment close to the Sun, very much reduced due to the relative lack of oxygen.
Carbonaceous chondrites come fro...
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August 12, 2016,
Astronomy/Space
The highly incised gullies on the eastern rim of the 150 km × 125 km Hale crater (located at 35.7°S, 323.4°E) as seen in the HiRISE image (top) resemble gullies on Earth and appear to have been carved by liquid water. However, when the gullies are observed with the addition of mineralogical information from CRISM (bottom), unaltered mafic material (light blue) from the crater rim is carved and transported downslope along the gully channels. No hydrated minerals are observed within the gullies in the CRISM image, indicating limited to no interaction of the mafic material with liquid water. These findings suggest that a different mechanism that does not involve liquid water may be responsible for carving these gullies on Mars...
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