Planetary scientists from Brown University have developed a new remote sensing method for studying olivine, a mineral that could help scientists understand the early evolution of the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies.
Planetary scientists from Brown University have developed a new remote sensing method for studying olivine, a mineral that could help scientists understand the early evolution of the Moon, Mars and other planetary bodies.
“Olivine is understood to be a major component in the interiors of rocky planets,” said Christopher Kremer, a Ph.D. candidate at Brown University and lead author of a new paper describing the work. “It’s a primary constituent of Earth’s mantle, and it’s been detected on the surfaces of the Moon and Mars in volcanic deposits or in impact craters that bring up material from the subsurface.”
Current remote sensing techniques are good at spotting olivine from orbit, Kremer says, but scientists would like to do more than just spot it. They’d like to be able to learn more about its chemical makeup. All olivines have silicon and oxygen, but some are rich in iron while others have lots of magnesium.
“The composition tells us something about the environment in which the minerals formed, particularly the temperature,” Kremer said. “Higher temperatures during formation yield more magnesium, while lower temperatures yield more iron. Being able to tease out those compositions could tell us something about how the interiors of these planetary bodies have evolved since their formation.”
Read more at Brown University
Image: A mountain peak at the center of the Moon's Copernicus Crater has an abundance of olivine, a mineral that can help scientists understand the internal evolution of planetary bodies. A new technique developed by Brown University researchers can help to study olivine from afar. CREDIT: NASA/GSFC/Arizona State University
