"The product of implanted hydrogen and helium."-Michelle Thompson
Starts at 2:00.
This is a follow-up of Hayabusa2 sample return. The sample is being studied; what is seen? Turns out bubbles.
A note for the slide at 5:00. Just so I can refer back to it as a good meme for 'space weathering'.
Slide at 10:00 has a few reveals for me. I did not know one could measure solar wind exposure in terms of micro deposits.
Slide at 19:00. I never saw the image she called attention to, the one on the right. Shadow of the spacecraft over the hole it made. That's actually a pretty monumental meme.
Implications at 41:40.
Sunday, May 7, 2023
"The Martian interior has more complex processes than we previously thought."-Arya Udry
Mars stuff always starts with trying to pin something on the timeline. Gale crater is a Hesperian Crater, that sort of thing. That is what Curiosity is all about, the rest is just fluff. Mars Scientists will shank each other over less studied features. They do not normally.
This video is thin-slice porn. (22:15)
Slide at 10:50. Just like Vesta has HED minerals, Mars has SNC minerals. Shergottite, Nakhlite, Chassignite. Three fingerprints of Amazonian mars. If you cut a Mars meteorite in polished-half, this is what you will see. Sand. If it's not sand then the Mars meteorite is probably brecciated, with igneous clasts. Those are the good ones. The ones that can make a reddit geologist offer money. The overwhelming majority of Mars meteorites are SNC.
Slide at 20:20. Just a beautiful reference slide of some SNC's.
36:00 Curiosity has to vaporize a piece of rock, and compare the spectra emitted by the light, against the ratios of SNC and other Mars rocks. If it lazers something with a weird ratio, the rover investigates. These are some of the investigations.
The takeaway is that Mars scientists really, really, really want those Curiosity samples. Right now. When they appear, igneous clasts will be the harbinger of a time measuring stick. Establishing measuring sticks is central in Mars science at this time.
