First Ever Glass Deposits Found On Martian Surface

Popular Science ^ | June 8th, 2015 | Mary Beth Griggs

[SunkenCiv]

It seems like Mars has just about everything: auroras, water, and now... glass?

In a paper published recently in Geology researchers announced that NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO) found deposits of glass in craters on the Martian surface. These are the first deposits ever found on Mars, and they could help us figure out if there was ever life on the red planet.

On Mars, the glass was created when meteorites slammed into the Martian surface with enough force to melt some of the rocks, which then cooled quickly enough in the atmosphere, turning them into a type of glass known as impact glass. On Earth, scientists have shown that some impact glass contains tiny amounts of organic material from the time when a giant meteorite struck our planet millions of years ago.

Researchers hope that if life ever did exist on Mars, there might be some trace of it preserved in the glass deposits from when meteorites once hit. It's a long shot, but there's a very real possibility that NASA will at least be able to test the theory. One of the possible locations for the next Mars rover (launching in 2020) contains glass deposits.

Glass is formed in nature when melted rock solidifies so fast that the atoms moving around in the molten material don't have time to line up in nice orderly formations -- the way they would if they were able to cool down slowly. Instead, the atoms freeze where they are, creating the hard, shiny, brittle glass surface that we all know and love.

One type of natural glass you might have heard of is obsidian, a glass that is formed by volcanic eruptions when lava cools in just the right way.

[SunkenCiv]

Glass (in green) found in the Alga crater on Mars. [NASA/JPL-Caltech/JHUAPL/Univ. of Arizona]

[SunkenCiv]

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[SunkenCiv]

In 2010, Hayabusa became the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid, collect samples, and return them to Earth. Now JAXA, the Japanese space agency, is hoping to do it all over again--this time on one of Mars' potato-shaped moons. JAXA announced on Tuesday that it wants to land a probe on Deimos and/or Phobos to scrape up some dirt and bring it back to Earth-bound scientists. The samples could tell us about the composition and history of these moons... The new mission may potentially influence NASA's plans to put humans on Mars in the 2030s. Support seems to be growing for the idea of using Phobos or Deimos as a stepping stone to Mars. The moons would be easier and cheaper to land on than the planet itself. One plan, proposed by NASA Jet Propulsion Lab scientists, involves sending astronauts to a base camp on Phobos, and later shuttling them down to Mars. The Planetary Society has drawn up a similar plan. But before we try to put people on Mars' moons, it's a good idea to send some unmanned spacecraft to scope the place out. The lessons we learn from the proposed JAXA mission could help to ensure that astronauts land safely and know what to expect when they get there. ["Japan Wants To Dig Up Dirt On Martian Moons: A mission to Phobos and Deimos could pave the way for putting humans on Mars" · Sarah Fecht · Popular Science · June 11th, 2015 · photo: NASA/JPL-Caltech/University of Arizona]

[Rembrandt]

Just wait. Algore will soon begin complaining about the warming of Mars due to U.S. air activities impacting the Mars atmosphere.

[nickcarraway]

Can we get our deposit back now?

[martin_fierro]

[Nifster]

Not an indication of anything other than hot temperature..

[Sivad]

Back in the 60s there was a neighborhood store
in our little town where we would take our
deposit glass soda bottles. Prices evolved but
I think at one time the 12 and 16 Oz bottles
were 3 cents and the quart bottles were 10 cents.
We bought candy with our earnings and took our
time making our choices. That would piss off
the Chinese store owner and he would run us out
of the place. We called him ‘Dirty Ernie’ but
I don’t remember why. We were a little outside our
own neighborhood so he didn’t know our folks.

[Fungi]

"On Mars, the glass was created when meteorites slammed into the Martian surface with enough force to melt some of the rocks," Really? That can be proven experimentally? How would they know? Mere speculation.

[PROCON]

OMG, your right.

I saw this with my home telescope...

[jonrick46]

You described my exact experience with the glass bottles. We didn’t have the paranoid Chinese store owner. That store had the best candy. My brother collected the baseball card chewing gum.

[Viking2002]

Similar to the local liquor store in my youth. We got 2 cents back on every glass beer bottle we'd return. A buddy and I could score a six pack of Iron City and a pack of Marlboro Reds for under three bucks. If we could pony up a Lincoln between the two of us, we'd be set all night.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Maybe it was a nuclear bomb that was detonated on Mars that caused the glass to form there.

[Swordmaker]

Glass in craters is also expected and predicted in the Electric Universe Model for crater creation, and is in fact more easily explained why it would still be there than after a meteor impact. PING

If you want on or off the Electric Universe Ping List, Freepmail me.

[Beowulf9]

That is fabulous.

[Smokin' Joe]

What? No obsidian?

[alexander_busek]

Back in the 60s there was a neighborhood store in our little town where we would take our deposit glass soda bottles. Prices evolved but I think at one time the 12 and 16 Oz bottles were 3 cents and the quart bottles were 10 cents. We bought candy with our earnings and took our time making our choices. That would piss off the Chinese store owner and he would run us out of the place. We called him ‘Dirty Ernie’ but I don’t remember why. We were a little outside our own neighborhood so he didn’t know our folks.

Thanks for that little stroll down Memory Lane! It's for little nuggets like that that I click on articles in the Astronomy forum.

Regards,

[Daffynition]

Frankly, I would have preferred finding the mates to generations of *lost sox* ;D

[SunkenCiv]

More ex cathedra nonsense from you? Not a surprise. Don't like science? Quit trolling in the science threads.

[SunkenCiv]

Yes, from impact -- unless you think the aliens made it, along with their face and pyramids.