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The image of a reddish -brown planet. | Credit: NASA
New experiments have shown that the Martian core formed much faster than the Earth’s core, thanks to the melted iron and nickel sulfides emanating through the hard rock and the center of the Red Planet.
Planets is layeredA little like onion. The surface on which we stand crustwho sits on the mantle. Much deeper, and we find a solid outer core and a melted inner core, whose spinning can generate a universal magnetic field.
Planetary scientists call this layering “differentiation” in the sense that different elements were able to distinguish themselves from each other. Heavier elements, especially iron and nickel, usually immerse themselves in the hearts of the planets, and lighter silicate elements remain in the outer layers. However, scientists usually thought that iron and nickel could immerse themselves in the core of the planets, the inside of the planet must be melted, which was first melted by the heat released by heat radioactive decomposition aluminum-26 and possibly iron-56.
Almost certainly as The landAt least the nucleus was formed in the process, which, according to the scientists, took a billion years or more. But Mars Provides a burst of this story. Mars Meteorites There is a radioisotopic evidence of sensitive Mars nucleus, and this evidence shows that the core is not a billion years, but just a few millions of years after birth The solar system; It seems that Mars has grown much faster than Earth, but the solar system formation models have tried to replicate it.
Now NASA Johnson Space Center researchers of the Astromatery Research and Research Science (Ares) Division believe they have a response. They could find out how Mars could have formed their nucleus so quickly without any anomal growth that shocked early.
About 4.5 to 4.6 billion years of planets pulled out of gas and dust disk that covered the suncalled a protoplanetary disc. Baby sun gravity attracted the most difficult elements and minerals, including iron and nickel, to the inner disk temple. Meanwhile, lighter materials such as water and hydrogen were in the outer parts of the disk.
The place where Mars was formed, sat somewhere between those departments. There was a lot of iron and nickel nearby, but there were also space for lighter elements such as oxygen and sulfur. The Ares team realized that it could have influenced the formation of the Martian core, so they tried it. In doing so, they presented the first direct evidence that melted iron and nickel sulfides could penetrate through small cracks between minerals in solid rock, and eventually accumulate in the core of the planet only a few million years later, long before the radioactive decomposition turned inside.
Mars cross -section showing its molten core, which has probably created a global magnetic field in the past that no longer exists. | Credit: NASA – JPL/GSFC
Scientists, led by Sam Crossley, who have since moved from Ares to Arizona University in Tukuson, conducted high temperature experiments in NASA Johnson Experimental Petrology Laboratory, heating sulfate -rich rocks with 1,020 degrees Celsius, samples that are hot enough. rock. They then checked the heated samples in the space center X -ray in the CT scan to see if the sulfides swiped through hard rock.
“In all 3D images, we could actually see how the sulfide solutions were moving through an experimental sample emanating from other minerals,” said Crossley a a statement;
Everything is good and good to show it under controlled conditions in the laboratory, but can it actually happen in the intestine of the planetary body? Of course, the team had to re -check its hypothesis for a substance that was once a part of the planet’s body.
“We took the next step and searched for forensic chemical evidence of sulfide rectification in meteorites,” said Crossley. “By partially dissolving synthetic sulfides filled with traces of platinum group metals, we were able to restore the same unusual chemical patterns contained in meteorites high in oxygen, and provided strong evidence that sulfide regeneration occurred under these conditions in the early solar system.”
However, to determine those traces of platinum metals, especially Iridium, Osmi, Paladis, Platinum and Rutheni, without destroying samples, some reasonable methods were needed by Jake Stera, Ares researcher, invented by Ares researcher.
“To confirm what 3D visualization showed us, we needed to develop a suitable laser ablation method that could trace platinum groups in these complex experimental samples,” the Setra said.
The Setera Method found that the passage of the melted sulfides through the hard rock left the remains of these platinum metals in samples in the quantities that were found in certain chondritic meteorites.
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“This was confirmed by our hypothesis – that in the planetary environment, these dense solutions will migrate into the center of the body and form a core, even before the surrounding rocks began to melt,” Crossley said.
This core formation model would be applied to all significant large bodies living in the middle region of the protopoplanetary disk, not just Mars. Nevertheless, given the Mars formation puzzle, the findings can answer some fundamental questions about the early days of the Red Planet and predict that the Mars nucleus should be rich in sulfur. And you know what sulfur smell? Rotten eggs.
The investigation was published on April 4th. In the magazine Nature relationships;