Super-Rare Minerals Make Earth Unique in Cosmos

[etienne_marais]

Super-Rare Minerals Make Earth Unique in Cosmos

New research from a team led by Carnegie's Robert Hazen predicts that Earth has more than 1,500 undiscovered minerals and that the exact mineral diversity of our planet is unique and could not be duplicated anywhere in the cosmos.

Minerals form from novel combinations of elements. These combinations can be facilitated by both geological activity, including volcanoes, plate tectonics, and water-rock interactions, and biological activity, such as chemical reactions with oxygen and organic material.

Nearly a decade ago, Hazen developed the idea that the diversity explosion of planet's minerals from the dozen present at the birth of our Solar System to the nearly 5,000 types existing today arose primarily from the rise of life. More than two-thirds of known minerals can be linked directly or indirectly to biological activity, according to Hazen. Much of this is due to the rise of bacterial photosynthesis, which dramatically increased the atmospheric oxygen concentration about 2.4 billion years ago.

Read more at http://www.geologyin.com/2016/02/super-rare-minerals-make-earth-unique.html#KVL42W3MKv8Q2E7u.99

 

[etienne_marais]

Agree/Disagree ?

Given the innumerable asteroids and planets out there we simply don't know what is out there, in what quantities and in which diversities in a body.

 

[DCS]

There is nothing unique about anything in a cosmos that is more than likely infinite

 

[Arthur]

I find it almost inconceivable to believe that earth's mineral combination/diversity is "unique in the cosmos". How can any scientist possibly say that, given how little we know about earth or cosmos?

 

[etienne_marais]

ok, I think it has more to do with a unique combination of minerals as opposed to other bodies in the cosmos contain less diversity, or the same minerals being found elsewhere on different bodies.

But in this instance, Hazen's team asked how the diversity and distribution of Earth's minerals came into existence and the likelihood that it could be replicated elsewhere. What they found is that if we could turn back the clock and "re-play" Earth's history, it is probable that many of the minerals formed and discovered in this alternate version of our planet would be different from those we know today.

"This means that despite the physical, chemical, and biological factors that control most of our planet's mineral diversity, Earth's mineralogy is unique in the cosmos," Hazen said.

 

[saor]

ok, I think it has more to do with a unique combination of minerals as opposed to other bodies in the cosmos contain less diversity, or the same minerals being found elsewhere on different bodies.

His thesis is also that biological life influences the minerals we find ourselves with. So the unique life on earth produces unique kinds of minerals.

 

[Binary_Bark]

Strangely this is true, in comparison to the Milky Way galaxy Gold is very common on earth.
We might be unique but it is only because our star and solar system was created by one or many Super Massive stars that once had the mass to create these elements before going Hyper Nova

 

[etienne_marais]

Strangely this is true, in comparison to the Milky Way galaxy Gold is very common on earth.
We might be unique but it is only because our star and solar system was created by one or many Super Massive stars that once had the mass to create these elements before going Hyper Nova

Did a cursory google, any links ? How on Earth would we know that ? The Milky Way galaxy has 100 billion to 400 billion stars with at least 100 billion planets according to wiki.

 

[Binary_Bark]

Did a cursory google, any links ? How on Earth would we know that ? The Milky Way galaxy has 100 billion to 400 billion stars with at least 100 billion planets according to wiki.

Not at the moment, It takes a Super Nova and higher to create gold, a massive star needs to die.
The mass of a star needed to create gold needs to be at least 10 times bigger than our local star Sol. Our local star can only go as far as iron, our star is not massive and heavy enough to fuse matter any further.
In the end our star would grow to a red giant, die in a explosive death of a Nova and the core would be left over s a red dwarf

 

[etienne_marais]

Not at the moment, It takes a Super Nova and higher to create gold, a massive star needs to die.
The mass of a star needed to create gold needs to be at least 10 times bigger than our local star Sol. Our local star can only go as far as iron, our star is not massive and heavy enough to fuse matter any further.
In the end our star would grow to a red giant, die in a explosive death of a Nova and the core would be left over s a red dwarf

ok, that makes sense if one takes the distribution/frequency of super novas (and higher) within the galaxy I would guess.

 

[Binary_Bark]

ok, that makes sense if one takes the distribution/frequency of super novas (and higher) within the galaxy I would guess.

The universe are only at the teenage stage, but as the massive stars die, new ones are born from the ashes, but a bit smaller.
It amounts to Newton's law of energy and more so to the second law of thermodynamics.
We and everything in the universe are subjected to entropy, we are born and are subjected to disorder, we get old and die.

With entropy and Newton's law the big stars die, in their death they create the heavy elements, from their death, their ashes, new stars are born, but some of that energy was transformed into something else and smaller stars are are thus created in this stellar nursery.
Remember in the beginning of the universe stars where massive, they lived fast and died young, we are just part of that matter and energy created

In the end our universe would be ruled by red dwarfs, pulsars, neutron stars and just darkness