Recent Comments

    planetesimals tagged posts

    A Martian mash up: Meteorites tell story of Mars’ water history

    March 31, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    A Martian Mash Up: Meteorites Tell Story of Mars’ Water History

    University of Arizona researchers probed Martian meteorites to reconstruct Mars’ chaotic history. Their findings suggest that Mars might not have had a global magma ocean.

    Researchers probed Martian meteorites to reconstruct Mars’ chaotic history. Their findings suggest that Mars might not have had a global magma ocean.

    In Jessica Barnes’ palm is an ancient, coin-sized mosaic of glass, minerals and rocks as thick as a strand of wool fiber. It is a slice of Martian meteorite, known as Northwest Africa 7034 or Black Beauty, that was formed when a huge impact cemented together various pieces of Martian crust.

    Barnes is an assistant professor of planetary sciences in the University of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Labo...

    Read More

    Mars: Simulations of Early Impacts produce a Mixed Mars Mantle

    February 16, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    Early Mars after impact, showing projectile materials leaving the planet
    Courtesy of Southwest Research Institute A Southwest Research Institute team performed high-resolution, smoothed-particle simulations of a large, differentiated projectile hitting early Mars after its core and mantle had formed. The projectile’s core and mantle particles are indicated by brown and green spheres respectively, showing local concentrations of the projectile materials assimilated into the Martian mantle.

    The early solar system was a chaotic place, with evidence indicating that Mars was likely struck by planetesimals, small protoplanets up to 1,200 miles in diameter, early in its history...

    Read More

    New Horizons Team uncovers a Critical Piece of the Planetary Formation puzzle

    February 15, 2020, Categories  Astronomy/Space

    The uniform color and composition of Arrokoth’s surface shows the Kuiper Belt object formed from a small, uniform, cloud of material in the solar nebula, rather than a mishmash of matter from more separated parts of the nebula. The former supports the idea that Arrokoth formed in a local collapse of a cloud in the solar nebula.
    Credits: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Southwest Research Institute/Roman Tkachenko

    Data from NASA’s New Horizons mission are providing new insights into how planets and planetesimals – the building blocks of the planets – were formed.

    The New Horizons spacecraft flew past the ancient Kuiper Belt object Arrokoth (2014 MU69) on Jan...

    Read More

    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...

    Read More