Astronomers discover a rare stellar disk of quartz dust
Research suggests more silicon in Earth's lower mantle than thought
A research team of Japanese astronomers led by Dr. Hideaki Fujiwara (Subaru Telescope) has discovered a main-sequence star that is surrounded by a rare disk of quartz dust. Collisions of planetesimals, building blocks for planets, may have produced the dusty quartz ring during planet formation around the star. Based on observations with the AKARI and Spitzer infrared space telescopes, this recently discovered, intriguing feature of a stellar system may open new doors for research on the mineralogical nature of extrasolar planetary systems
Research suggests more silicon in Earth's lower mantle than thought
For many years geophysicists have argued over the perplexing mystery regarding the amount of silicon in the Earth's mantle that is thought to have arrived there via impacts with asteroids.
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