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]

Those are still floating around in the Hozone.

[SunkenCiv]

:’) There was no bottle bill in Michigan until the late 1960s or so; prior to that time each brand distributor put deposits on the bottles (all glass) which were (usually) returned, washed, refilled, and sold again. When the plastic one-way bottles were first tried, it was cheaper to buy the glass and throw tthem out than it was to get the disposables. :’D

[silverleaf]

Lol! Mars as a galaxy trash dump

Who knew?

[Flick Lives]

[Sivad]

Thanks

So glad I could inspire you to take the time and
make the effort to respond to my post. It was
encouraging.

[tumblindice]

My bro’ and I got 3 cents for empty pop bottles in Elk City, OK.
Then it was off to the little food market for Hostess cupcakes & snowballs (12 cents).
And then we hunted little dinosaurs .. . no not really.

Beer bottles weren’t worth anything so I used them for target practice, shooting my Daisy BB gun behind an old honkytonk right off old route 66.

I got pretty good, but had to keep one eye out for the owner. He had a pistol Mexican carry in his waistband, but I figured he might run me off but wouldn’t shoot me.

[Nifster]

Now that’s just plain funny

Never saw Hoagland look so important

[SunkenCiv]

;’)

[Swordmaker]

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

Did't you know? The fifth ring of Saturn is made of left sox. . . and the seven ring is right sox. . . it's much smaller because fewer right sox are lost than left sox.