Search results for "Planetary body"
showing 2 items of 2 documents
Extraterrestrial Mössbauer Spectroscopy
2011
To understand the origin of the Solar system and the origin of Life itself is one of the longest standing goals of human thought. Our Sun and its planets have formed out of an interstellar cloud which collapsed due to gravitational forces, forming a disk shaped so-called protosolar nebula, with the young star in the centre. Such disk shaped and dust grain containing protosolar nebulae have been observed. One of them is surrounding the young star Beta pictoris [1, 2]. Silicates, carbon and metal grains, oxides and sulfides should have been present. One of the important elements with relatively high abundance is iron. It is believed that simple molecules, such as water (H2O), carbon monoxide …
A view of extraterrestrial soils
2009
International audience; The nature of soils on celestial bodies other than Earth is a growing area of research in planetary geology. However, disagreement over the significance of these deposits arises in part due to the lack of a unified concept and definition of soil in the literature. The pragmatic definition “medium for plant growth” is taken by some to imply the necessity of biota for soil to exist, and has been commonly adopted in the planetary science community. In contrast, a more complex and informative definition bases on scientific theory: soil is the (bio)geochemically/physically altered material at the surface of a planetary body that encompasses surficial extraterrestrial tell…