Tag Archives: chlorine

Misleading mineral may have led to overestimate of water in moon

Discovery of hydrogen-rich apatite in lunar rocks hinted at more watery past. Think again, says UCLA’s Jeremy Boyce.

The amount of water present in the moon may have been overestimated by scientists studying the mineral apatite, says a team of researchers led by Jeremy Boyce of the UCLA Department of Earth, Planetary and Space Sciences.

Boyce and his colleagues created a computer model to accurately predict how apatite would have crystallized from cooling bodies of lunar magma early in the moon’s history. Their simulations revealed that the unusually hydrogen-rich apatite crystals observed in many lunar rock samples may not have formed within a water-rich environment, as was originally expected. (more…)

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NASA Mars Rover Fully Analyzes First Soil Samples

PASADENA, Calif. – NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover has used its full array of instruments to analyze Martian soil for the first time, and found a complex chemistry within the Martian soil. Water and sulfur and chlorine-containing substances, among other ingredients, showed up in samples Curiosity’s arm delivered to an analytical laboratory inside the rover.

Detection of the substances during this early phase of the mission demonstrates the laboratory’s capability to analyze diverse soil and rock samples over the next two years. Scientists also have been verifying the capabilities of the rover’s instruments. (more…)

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Atomic Weights of Ten Chemical Elements About to Change

For the first time in history, a change will be made to the atomic weights of some elements listed on the Table of Standard Atomic Weights of the chemical elements found in the inside covers of chemistry textbooks worldwide.

The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry’s (IUPAC) Commission on Isotopic Abundances and Atomic Weights is publishing a new table that will express atomic weights of ten elements as intervals, rather than as single standard values. The new table is the result of cooperative research supported by the U.S. Geological Survey, IUPAC, and other contributing Commission members and institutions. (more…)

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Fireworks Produce High Levels of Toxic Particles

Fireworks. Downtown Miami on July 4, 2007. Image credit: Marc Averette. Source: Wikipedia

Fireworks can be spectacular. However, the gas and smoke produced by the colorful explosions carry extremely high levels of toxic particles, according to a study by Audrey Smargiassi, a professor at the Université de Montreal Department of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Smargiassi conducted one of the first studies examining the composition of the emitted gases and the concentration of the particles. In addition, her study is unique as she collected her data below the fireworks display where spectators usually stand. Previous studies usually collected data from nearby rooftops.

The study was conducted in 2007 during nine separate shows presented at La Ronde amusement park where 5.7 million spectators attend an international fireworks competition every summer. (more…)

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Air Above Dead Sea Contains Very High Levels of Oxidized Mercury

*First such levels measured outside polar regions*

In Hebrew, the Dead Sea is called Yam ha-Melah, the “sea of salt.” Now measurements show that the sea’s salt has profound effects on the chemistry of the air above its surface.

The atmosphere over the Dead Sea, researchers have found, is laden with oxidized mercury. Some of the highest levels of oxidized mercury ever observed outside the polar regions exist there. (more…)

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