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Sahara Space Rock

1 September 2023
Astronomy, Geology

At https://phys.org/news/2023-08-sahara-space-billion-years-upends.html … unusual rocks containing distinctive green crystals were found in a dune filled region of the Sahara desert. The region is known as the Erg Chech sand sea. However, the rocks came from outer space, pieces from a meteor. They are said to be the oldest volcanic rock ever found. The story is that the volcano itself blew on the parent body – not on earth. It is what is known as an achondrite – comprising dust and gas from the early solar system. The rock also contains a high amount of lead and uranium, and a lesser amount of aluminium. This suggests, we are told, that aluminium was in the cloud of dust and gas which formed our solar system.

At https://phys.org/news/2023-08-european-southern-observatory-telescopes-unravel.html … some 12 telescopes, on the ground and in space, have been utilised by astronomers to look at a pulsar object. These are supposed to be fast spinning but dead stars. They flash between brightness modes almost constantly. This is caused by continuous ejections of matter over very short periods of time. Overall, enormous amounts of matter, like sonic cannon balls, are launched into space every tens of seconds. Pulsars, a fast rotating object, emits beams of electro-magnetic radiation. As they rotate the beams sweep across space – much like a lighthouse beam of light sweeping across the seashore.

At https://phys.org/news/2023-08-giant-planet-evidence-planetary-collisions.html … a planet the size of Neptune, and denser than steel. It is thought it might have formed after a collision – faraway Worlds in Collision. It is also thought collisions, in the plural, ripped away some of its atmosphere and water, leaving behind a lump of rock that looks as it it has been shorn.

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