Findings from NASA missions suggest that minerals similar to rubies, sapphires, and opals may form on Mars, providing significant new insights into the planet's geological past. Recent analyses of data from NASA's Perseverance rover indicate that the «Red Planet» may host traces of the same minerals that make up rubies, sapphires, and opals on Earth.
More specifically, as reported by Scientific American, using the rover's mid-infrared instrument, known as Percy, high amounts of corundum, a form of oxidized aluminum, were detected in light-colored pebbles within the Jezero crater. This is the mineral family that includes precious gemstones like rubies and sapphires. However, the findings are extremely small, often on a micro-scale, and do not exhibit the clarity or structure that would give them commercial value.
Minerals that reveal the past
Their significance lies not in their aesthetic or economic value, but in the conditions under which they were formed. On Earth, the formation of such minerals requires extreme pressure and high temperatures. Conditions typically associated with tectonic plate activity and geologically active regions. Mars, however, does not have active tectonics like Earth. For this reason, scientists believe that such formations may have resulted from violent asteroid impacts, during which the aluminum in the asteroid rapidly fused with Martian minerals.
Candice Bedford, a researcher at Purdue University and co-author of the report published in the Journal of Geophysical Research, explained that minerals on Mars are not actually precious because they are created in seconds from impacts. She said they are very different from rocks found on Earth. They don't have the same luster and tend to be too tiny to be used in jewelry, with some being smaller than one millimeter. At the same time, data collected by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter satellite, as well as by Perseverance, highlight the potential presence of opal. As with corundum, in this case too it's just traces, but the interest lies elsewhere.
These minerals on Earth form when water seeps into cracks in rocks and then evaporates, leaving behind deposits that create characteristic structures over time. Their potential detection on Mars is a strong indication that the planet had significant amounts of water in the past, possibly in underground reservoirs or surface systems that are now lost. Furthermore, a previous mission to Mars with the Mars Phoenix Lander confirmed the presence of ice on the planet.
Interplanetary shopping trips?;
Although such discoveries generate excitement and conjure images of a planet full of treasures, the scientific community is cautious. As the researchers report, precious stones like those on Earth are not found on Mars. And even if something like that were true, mining them on the Red Planet would not make sense. Since the costs of such a process would be pointless.
Although they cannot be utilized, they offer valuable information to experts about the planet's geological past, its composition, and its formation. Scientists point out that even if finding further evidence would help significantly, it would require a sample to reach Earth for analysis with an electron microscope. Something like that, however, seems like a science fiction scenario. After all, in past months, as the publication points out, the American government canceled a planned mission. Despite years of planning and millions of dollars spent on this goal.
Exterior Photo: Pixabay – NASA's Mars Phoenix Lander arrived on Mars in 2008 and confirmed the presence of ice on the planet
Source: www.newmoney.gr
