Lunar rocks closely resemble Earth rocks in many respects, but Moon rocks are more depleted
in volatile elements like potassium, sodium, and zinc, which tend to have lower boiling points and vaporize readily.
Southwest Research Institute scientists combined dynamical, thermal, and chemical models of the Moon's formation to explain the relative lack
of volatile elements in lunar rocks, when compared to those of Earth.
In a new study, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at the University of California San Diego Professor James Day and colleagues examined the chemical composition of zinc and
other volatile elements contained in the green - colored glass, called trinitite, which were radioactive materials formed under the extreme temperatures that resulted from the 1945 plutonium bomb explosion.
Both rising and declining interest rates, depending on the type of investment the company makes, can negatively affect its income and represent a
highly volatile element of risk in the reinsurance company's performance.
But in the last few years, NASA's Messenger probe has found
volatile elements like potassium in the planet's crust.
The study's findings showed that
volatile elements undergo the same chemical reactions during extreme temperature and pressure events whether taking place on Earth or in outer space.
When compared with samples collected farther away, the glass closest to the detonation site was depleted in
volatile elements such as zinc.
These include the
most volatile elements of crude oil, which is a mixture of many hydrocarbons, including naphthalene, benzene, and phenanthrene.
That's because, on top of bringing water, they are also believed to have delivered much of Earth's so -
called volatile elements, namely, carbon, nitrogen, and noble gases, says Conel Alexander, a cosmochemist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in Washington, D.C. To explain the abundance of these elements, there would have had to have been enough impacts to also deliver Earth's water, he says.
«For instance, our own moon is low in
volatile elements because it slowly coalesced from a churning, hot disk of material surrounding the Earth.»
Lunar rocks have relatively
few volatile elements: water, nitrogen, hydrogen, chlorine, sulphur, and the noble gases.
Zinc and
other volatile elements, which vaporize under high temperature, were «dried out» close to the explosion than those further away from the blast.
Scientists at Southwest Research Institute combined dynamical, thermal, and chemical models of the Moon's formation to explain the relative lack
of volatile elements in lunar rocks.
«Our work suggests that even
highly volatile elements may not be lost completely during a giant impact,» said Van Orman.
However, on the sides opposite the point of impact, materials rich
in volatile elements are able to withstand the collision and are ejected at relative speeds low enough for them to attract each other and re-accrete, forming many small bodies which in turn clump together to form just one.
«The results show that evaporation at high temperatures, similar to those at the beginning of planet formation, leads to the loss of
volatile elements and to enrichment in heavy isotopes in the left over materials from the event,» said Day, a Scripps geoscientist and lead author of the study.
How the Earth acquired
its volatile elements has long interested scientists.
The analysis by Day and colleagues found similarities between the trinitite and lunar rocks in that they are both highly depleted in
volatile elements and contain little to no water.
Scientists have long assumed that the heat from an impact of that size would cause hydrogen and other
volatile elements to boil off into space, meaning the moon must have started off completely dry.
The oil can't have too much water mixed in; and
the volatile elements, which ignite the easiest, can not have evaporated yet.
The liquid ring would have tended to spread while the gas — where
the volatile elements ended up — stayed put.
At Fukushima Daiichi, only
the volatile elements, such as iodine and caesium, are bubbling off the damaged fuel.
«When the fuel is damaged there is no reason for
the volatile elements not to escape,» and the measured caesium and iodine are in the right ratios for the fuel used by the Fukushima Daiichi reactors.
Scientists have long assumed that the heat from an impact of that size would cause hydrogen and other
volatile elements to boil off into space, meaning the Moon must have started off completely dry.
The crystals lock in
volatile elements that may have otherwise escaped from the magma.
«So the final materials the Moon accumulates are lacking in
volatile elements, even in the absence of escape.»
Researchers assume that asteroid and comet impacts contributed
these volatile elements to the newly formed Earth.
The even lower quantities of
these volatile elements found on the Moon has long been claimed as evidence that it must have formed following a high - temperature, catastrophic giant impact.
The finding may not only explain the driving force behind ancient «fire fountain» eruptions on the Moon but also suggest that
some volatile elements on the Moon and Earth have a common origin.
Compared with meteorites, Earth and the other inner planets contain relatively low amounts of water and
volatile elements, which were not abundant in the inner solar system during planet formation.
But how well do we really know the reservoirs and evolution of
volatile elements in protoplanetary disks?
For example, the «frost line» in our solar system — the distance where ices and other
volatile elements will not evaporate — is roughly at 500 million miles from the sun.
The two comets would have to exhibit very low density and be rich in
volatile elements, and therefore be moving very slowly, to enable them to come together and collide gently without exploding.
«As a result, Pluto still has more of
its volatile elements, which have long since been blown off the inner planets by solar wind,» he said.
This would lead to a dry and
volatile element - depleted Moon, which seemed to be
Spare parts management: software for the creation of spare parts catalogue, sales catalogue, electronic parts catalogs and spare parts, consultation over MESSENGER measurements have revealed that Mercury is surprisingly abundant in
volatile elements that evaporate at moderately high temperatures, ruling out
Lunar rocks closely resemble Earth rocks in many respects, but Moon rocks are more depleted in
volatile elements, like oxygen, carbon dioxide, potassium, sodium and zinc, which tend to have lower boiling points and vaporize readily.