mix of iron ore loader Water Described in the nineteenth century and the fact that they are common rocks in a land, indicates the presence of a large water tank in Mars.
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In 1844, Rudolf Hermann called this mineral turgite and in 1847 Breithaupt called it hydrohematite. According to the author of the new study, Professor of Earth Sciences at Pennsylvania State University Peter J. Heaney, in 1920, other mineralogists, using the recently developed X-ray diffraction technique, declared these two materials incorrect. But the emerging technology was too primitive to see the difference between hematite and Hydromatite.
Heaney and doctoral student Athena Chen obtained a small piece of the original Brythopt specimen, a Turgite-labeled specimen from the Smithsonian Institution, and surprisingly five were in the collection of Frederick Augustus Gynth in Pennsylvania.
After several examinations using a variety of instruments, including infrared spectroscopy and synchrotron X-ray diffraction, a method more sensitive and refined than that used in the mid-19th century, Chen showed that these metals were in fact light in iron and containing hydroxyl . Hydrogen-oxygen group: It is replaced by some iron atoms. The hydroxyl in the mineral is stored water.
Recently in the Journal of Geology, researchers suggested, “Hydromatite is common in low-temperature iron oxide states on Earth, and thus, can strip large amounts of water in seemingly arid planetary environments, such as the surface of Mars.”
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“I was trying to figure out the natural conditions for the formation of iron oxides,” Chen said in a statement. “What temperatures and pH are required to crystallize these aqueous phases? Can you find a way to make them?”
It was found that at temperatures below 150 ° C, in an aqueous and alkaline environment, hydrohaematite can precipitate and form sedimentary layers.
“It appears that a lot of the surface of Mars arose when the surface was wetter and iron oxides were deposited from that water,” Heaney said. “But the presence of hydrometite on Mars is still a guess.”
The “blueberries” were found in 2004 by rover opportunity From NASA They are hematite. Although the latest Mars rover has X-ray diffraction instruments to identify hematite, it is not sophisticated enough to distinguish between hematite and hydromatite.
“On Earth, these spherical structures are hydromamatites, so it seems reasonable to me to speculate that the bright red stones on Mars are hydromymatites,” Heaney said.
The researchers note that the anhydrous hematite, which lacks water, and hydrohematite, which contains water, have two different colours, with the hydromatite being more reddish or dark red-striped.
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Chen’s experiments found that natural hydroematite contains 3.6 to 7.8 percent by weight of water and goethite contains about 10 percent by weight of water. Depending on how much hydrated iron minerals are on Mars, researchers think there could be a large reservoir of water there.
Mars is called the red planet because of its color, which comes from the iron compounds found on the land of Mars. According to the researchers, the presence of hydroimatite on the surface of Mars will provide further evidence that Mars was once a watery planet, and that water is the only compound necessary for all life on Earth.
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