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Spherules still in their originating strata
Spherules still in their originating strata

Martian spherules (also known as blueberries due to their blue hue in false-color images released by NASA) are the abundant spherical hematite inclusions discovered by the Mars rover Opportunity at Meridiani Planum on the planet Mars. NASA 's Mars Exploration Rover ( MER) Mission is an ongoing robotic mission of exploring Mars, that began in 2003 with the sending of MER-B ( Mars Exploration Rover - B) known as Opportunity, is the second of the two rovers of NASA 's Mars Exploration Meridiani Planum is a plain located 2 degrees south of Mars ' equator (centered at) in the westernmost portion of Terra Meridiani. They are found in situ embedded in a sulfate salt evaporitic matrix, and also loose on the surface.

The shapes by themselves don't reveal the particles' origin with certainty. "A number of straightforward geological processes can yield round shapes," said Dr. Hap McSween, an Opportunity science team member from the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. Harold "Hap" Y McSween is a Professor of Planetary Geoscience and Distinguished Professor of Science at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville. The University of Tennessee (also known as UT) sometimes called the University of Tennessee Knoxville ( UT Knoxville, or UTK) is the flagship They include accretion under water, but apparent pores in the particles make alternative possibilities of meteor impacts or volcanic eruptions more likely origins, he said. Porosity is a measure of the void spaces in a material and is measured as a fraction between 0–1 or as a Percentage between 0–100% Plate tectonics and hotspots Divergent plate boundaries At the

Mosaic shows some spherules partly embedded, spread over the (smaller) soil grains.
Mosaic shows some spherules partly embedded, spread over the (smaller) soil grains.

For example, ranging in size from less than 100 micrometers to more than 250 micrometers, similar spherules were found in Moon soil samples collected by Apollo 12 at the Procellarum Basin, and Apollo 14 near Mare Imbrium (Sea of Rains), the dark crater that dominates the Moon's face, and their properties were consistent with expectations for creation by meteor impacts. A micrometre ( American spelling: micrometer; symbol µm) is one millionth of a Metre, or equivalently one thousandth of a Millimetre Oceanus Procellarum (oʊˈsiːənəs ˌprɒsəˈlɛərəm Latin for "Ocean of Storms" is a vast Lunar mare on the western edge of the near side of Mare Imbrium, Latin for "Sea of Showers" or "Sea of Rains" is a vast Lunar mare (mahr'-ay filling a basin on Earth 's Moon

"We see these strange round objects we're calling "spherules" embedded in the outcrop, like blueberries in a muffin. The outcrop erodes away as it gets sandblasted, and the spherules (which seem to resist erosion better than the rest of the outcrop does) fall out and roll down the hill. Weird. " said Squyres. The spheres may have formed when molten rock was sprayed into the air by a volcano or a meteor impact. Or, they may be concretions, or accumulated material, formed by minerals coming out of solution as water diffused through rock, he said on a February 9 press conference. A concretion is a volume of Sedimentary rock in which a Mineral cement fills the porosity (i In Chemistry, a solution is a Homogeneous Mixture composed of two or more substances Diffusion is the net movement of particles (typically molecules from an area of high concentration to an area of low concentration by uncoordinated random movement Events 474 - Zeno crowned as co-emperor of the Byzantine Empire.

Not only are there spherules on the surface but they are also found deeper in the Martian soil. The difference between these and ones which were found at the surface was that they had a very shiny surface, that created strong glints and glares which made them appear shiny or polished. On March 2, Opportunity mission scientists reported that they concluded a survey of the distribution of spherules in the bedrock. Events 986 - Louis V becomes King of the Franks. 1127 - Assassination of Charles the Good They found that the spherules spread out evenly and randomly inside the rocks, and not in layers. This supports the notion that they grew in place, since if their origin was related to volcanic or meteoric episodes one would expect layers of spherules as a "record in time" for each event. This observation was added to the list of evidence for liquid water being present at this rock site, where it is thought the spherules formed.

3-D anaglyph of a spherule
3-D anaglyph of a spherule

See also

External links

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