Iron rain left heavy metal on early Earth

• Autores: Aviva Rutkin
• Localización: New scientist, ISSN 0262-4079, Nº. 3011, 2015, pág. 14
• Idioma: inglés
• Texto completo no disponible (Saber más ...)
• Resumen

  • Early weather reports on Earth could have forecast iron rain. The planet may have experienced such showers in its youth, which would help to explain the preponderance of precious metals in Earth's mantle and crust today. In its formative years, Earth was probably hit by many iron-rich objects from space. Scientists previously thought that these mostly melted into the planet's core, save for a few enormous planetesimals. These "lucky strikes" would have left iron, and elements like gold and platinum that tend to bond with iron, near the surface. But this model was based on estimates of what happens to iron when it slams into Earth. Richard Kraus at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in California and colleagues wanted to measure exactly how the element behaves under such extreme conditions.