Rare Moon Mineral Found On Earth 64
sciencehabit writes "A mineral previously known only from moon rocks and lunar meteorites has now been found on Earth. Researchers discovered the substance — dubbed tranquillityite after the Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 astronauts landed on the Moon in July 1969— at six sites in Western Australia (abstract). The mineral occurs only in minuscule amounts and has no economic value, but scientists say it could be used for age-dating the rocks in which it occurs."
Rare and of no economic value, huh? (Score:5, Funny)
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Sounds just like the occasional pearl of wisdom that my brother might offer.
I think the point was that it can't be used for anything.. it's not an energy source or something that can be systhesized into super heat resistant jock straps or taken for depression.. hence no economic value. Still valuable, but valuable like a collectible, not valuable like unobtanium.
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Just like my brother's advice. Occasionally, he comes up with something that seems insightful, but it's still totally worthless.
Let me guess, your brother is Bennett [tumblr.com]?
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Thank you, that's an entertaining website.
Someone please mod gmhowell Informative/Interesting/Underrated.
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Sounds just like the occasional pearl of wisdom that my brother might offer.
Sounds like slashdot karma.
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Scott !?!?
What are YOU doing here? I didn't know you read Slashdot!
Well... this is a bit awkward then, isn't it?
Missing Moon Rocks? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:No Value? (Score:5, Informative)
How is there no economic value? Isn't this essentially moon rock?
Moon rocks aren't valuable because they have some special property, they aren't valuable because of exceptional heat resistance or because they repell gravity. They are so valuable because of their scarcity here on earth. People who want to study them only have a very limited supply, short of going up to the moon again and getting more - which is of course inhibitively expensive.
The moon rocks (and the ones found in WA now) are just basalt, a rather un-exciting hard stone made from magma cooling rapidly. Now, the exact conditions that take place make the basic elements within them form into a number of interesting compounds. So, like silica is the main ingredient in sand, clay and quartz, they are all unique and formed through different conditions.
The moon rocks when first analyzed contained three previously unknown compounds. Armalcolite [wikipedia.org], pyroxferroite [wikipedia.org] and tranquillityite [wikipedia.org]. The first two have since then been discovered on earth, but the third remained elusive until now, when small deposits have been found. As I said before, there isn't anything super special about this compound, it's just that it hasn't ever been found naturally formed on earth till now.
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You seem a little confused on that theory. The theory (which is pretty much accepted by everyone these days) is that a Mars sized object hit the Earth and splashed parts of both the Earth and the object into space.
At one time the Earth had rings! The rings (from the debris that splashed after the impact) gradually came togetther because of gravity and became the moon. So it's part Earth, part some other planet (or possibly a gas giant's moon that was displaced from orbit).
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Actually, not likely.
While the Giant Impact Theory [wikipedia.org] has good standning, any impact between the two bodies would have entirely liquified both bodies. These sort of minerals would have been utterly obliterated. Basalts are indeed formed from lava, but if you heat them up enough (as a collision like this would have done) they will revert back to lava, so there would be no trace of them that we could find.
As they are made up of fairly common minerals (iron, oxygen, silicon, zirconium and titanium with smaller fr
Re:No Value? (Score:5, Insightful)
No, it is an Earth mineral that takes the same form as a mineral found in greater abundance on the Moon. The paper does not suggest that the mineral came from the Moon.
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Is there a page 3 [page3.com] job available? I'll take it thanks.
Job's already taken by APK - not sure it's what you had in mind. Every day it features another goatse.
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It's called "Cheese". (Score:3, Funny)
Most earthly deposits are found in the state of Minnesota and the country of Switzerland.
Re:Er, Wisconsin, not Minnesota... (Score:4, Funny)
Then stop telling jokes about us.
Jerk.
Why is it that we non-USians know more about your country than many of you? When you turn 5 (mentally), get someone to explain how dimwitted your comment is and how much you have portrayed your ignorance.
Now, go back to your trailer and your cousin-wife, dumbass.
Hey, don't knock trailer-trash cousin-wives -- they can be all kinds of hot and dirty.
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It's the extra head that does it. No additional brains though - all the more room to fill up with jizz.
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When we tell jokes about US, they are about (E)U.
When you tell jokes about EU, they are about us.
If you don't understand, don't worry, get rid of your principles, education and .... erm ... that third thing ... ooops.
Re:Er, Wisconsin, not Minnesota... (Score:4, Funny)
So shoot me, I don't live in the US.
Minnesota isn't Texas. We don't shoot people here, we prefer to kill them by waiting for an eternity at a stop-sign waving them through even though we have the right of way.
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Most earthly deposits are found in the state of Minnesota and the country of Switzerland.
You forgot France, you insensitive curd.
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(NL: 732 tons over 16,715,489 people => 0.0438 kg/inhabitant. USA 4,275 tons over 312,890,000 people => 0.0136 kg/inhabitant).
Disclaimer: this metric was created with the purpose of letting the Dutch win it.
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Hmm, someone should search Puff Daddy's residence for the missing moon rocks then
Collision? (Score:5, Interesting)
I wonder if this has anything to do with the theory that Moon was created due to a big collision of Earth with some other celestial body. This theory however is supported by reasoning that in general Moon and Earth have roughly similar composition. Then why tranquillityite is mostly on the Moon, and not Earth. Maybe the general geographical location of this material on Earth (Australia, you say?) would help in reconstructing the collision event, or maybe would lead to conclusion that the collision theory was wrong. Whatever the outcome, we are going to learn something.
Re:Collision? (Score:5, Interesting)
This is just conjecture, but TFA says Tranquilliyite metamorphes readly to other minerals. The moon, not having plate tectonics, lacks a major source of metamorphism, hence is more likely to keep those minerals in their igneous state.
On the earth, OTOH, by both a lot of metamorphic (tectonics, vulcanism,...) and sedimentary (wind, water, ice,...) agents, the rare Tranquillityite that formed was swiftly converted to other minerals.
As said, this is all just a guess. May be completely wrong.
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Both theories are verry hard to prove, since erosion and plate tektonics have remov
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I wonder if this has anything to do with the theory that Moon was created due to a big collision of Earth with some other celestial body.
I wonder if there's anyone here who didn't wonder that. Also, I thought that theory was like the theory of evolution, that it's as close to fact as science can get. I also wonder -- an object the size of Mars hitting something a bit smaller than the Earth would surely displace its orbit. Where did the Earth sit before the moon hit it? Was it even in the goldilocks zone? Co
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The missing moon rock has been recovered! (Score:1)
This is a total cover up.
Someone got cold feet and thought they got rid of the evidence until some idiot started to analyse a complete bland piece of gray rock.
Finally! (Score:1)
I knew one day we'd find the location where the fake "moon" rocks the moon landing hoaxers used came from.
So... (Score:2)
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Because it's a little meatier.
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But it doesn't. Rocks are like pies, and unless you're from kentunky you know that an Earth pie* tastes way better than a Moon Pie.
*Not to be confused with a mud pie
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And let the facts get in the way of an opinion? Not likely anyway, but we on Slashdot don't like taking chances.
Confused (Score:5, Funny)
So the moon contains rare earth elements, and now we have rare moon minerals on Earth. MAKE UP YOUR DAMN MINDS, EARTH/MOON SYSTEM!
They also found other evidence on the moon (Score:2)
It's little talked about, but they found convincing evidence that the cow really did jump over the moon.
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It's little talked about, but they found convincing evidence that the cow really did jump over the moon.
That's pure lunacy.
Imperial Earth (Score:2)
I am eagerly awaiting the discovery of Titanite.
Cave Johnson here! (Score:2)
I say we grind them up mix them into a gel. Once we invent a portal gun, that should come in very handy. Although it'll probably be pure poison.
Ah Ha! (Score:2)
So now we know that when they faked the moon landing they actually did it in Australia!