Even the strong heating from short-lived aluminium-26 (26Al) would not be able to homogenize the interior of a Mars‐sized planetary embryo.
Planetary geochemistry
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Traces of Impacts on Warm Planetesimals Early in Solar System
Meteorite NWA 11004 contains evidence of melting preceding an impact dated to 4546±36 Ma. Short lived radioactive decay had already heated the parent body of this meteorite before the impact.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
The Freshest Mineral Water in the Solar System
The water-rich plumes erupting from Saturn’s moon Enceladus show the chemical signs of water-rock interactions deep within the moon, further implicating Enceladus as a potential habitat for life.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Why Is the Red Planet Red? Chlorate May Oxidize Mars’ Surface
Laboratory experiments and geochemical model suggest that chlorate is very effective to oxidize reducing iron to reddish iron oxides on Mars when liquid water was present on the surface.
Posted inFeatures
Isotope Geochemists Glimpse Earth’s Impenetrable Interior
Painstaking measurements of isotopes and their relative abundance in rocks have illuminated the hidden inner Earth and our planet’s origins and shadowy past for much of the preceding century.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
History of Water on Mars’s Surface Is Longer Than We Thought
Curiosity’s two-step heating experiment of mudstone at Gale crater reveals minerals that formed in the presence of water less than 3 billion years ago.
Posted inNews
Gerald J. Wasserburg (1927–2016)
A leading geochemist who became well known for creating the first high-precision mass spectrometer, called Lunatic I, that measured isotope ratios in lunar samples from the Apollo missions.
Posted inScience Updates
Seeking Signs of Life and More: NASA’s Mars 2020 Mission
The next Mars rover will be able to land near rugged terrain, giving scientists access to diverse landscapes. It will also cache core samples, a first step in the quest to return samples to Earth.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Minerals Hint at Liquid Groundwater, More Oxygen in Mars's Past
Manganese deposits in Gale Crater fractures are similar to Earth features that usually require flowing water and highly oxidizing conditions.
Posted inScience Updates
Volatiles in Mars: Constraints, Questions, and Future Directions
Workshop on Volatiles in the Martian Interior; Houston, Texas, 3–4 November 2014