Excessive dietary sodium raises blood pressure, whereas a high potassium diet has the opposite effect. The underlying mechanisms are moderated by sex and...
Physicists with the Potassium Decay (KDK) Collaboration have made the first direct observations of a very rare but critical decay path of potassium-40...
While the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope and other space telescopes previously have revealed isolated ingredients of the atmosphere of WASP-39b,...
Using the spectral data from the NASA/ESA/CSA James Webb Space Telescope, astronomers have found evidence for silicate clouds as well as water, methane,...
The new global map of bulk hydrogen abundances on the Moon’s surface allows planetary researchers to address many previously unexplored areas in the...
The habitability of Mars is limited by its small size, according to new research by Washington University in St. Louis planetary scientists.
This artist’s...
Insulating materials can in principle be made metallic by applying pressure. In the case of pure water, this is estimated to require a pressure of 48 Mbars...
Astronomers have detected lithium in the atmospheres of four cool and old white dwarfs, of which one also displayed atmospheric potassium. The relative...
A team of astronomers from the University of Groningen, the University of Edinburgh, and SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Research has detected chromium...
The thermal evolution of rocky planets depends on the heat input from three long-lived radiogenic elements: potassium, thorium, and uranium. Concentrations...
In a study published recently in the Astrophysical Journal Letters, a team of astronomers analyzed spectroscopic atmospheric data from 19 exoplanets, ranging...
When two diatomic molecules collide, they can sometimes swap partners. For instance, two potassium-rubidium (KRb) molecules can produce K2 and Rb2. The...
A team of geologists from the University of Alberta, Northwestern University and the University of Glasgow has found a previously unknown mineral in a...
A volcanically active rocky exomoon may orbit WASP-49b, a hot gas giant approximately 550 light-years away in the constellation of Lepus.
An artist’s...
Until now, atoms in physical matter were understood to exist typically in one of three states — solid, liquid or gas. An international team of physicists...
Physicists at JILA, a joint institute of the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and the University of Colorado Boulder, have produced...
A new study published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters examines whether radioactive decay could support life on ocean worlds like Jupiter’s moon...
Measurements of potassium in lunar and terrestrial rocks have disproved the leading hypotheses for the origin of Earth’s sole natural satellite.
Moon....
![Backscattered electron images of experimental charges. Locations of images (A) to (D) from sediment-peridotite reaction experiments are schematically shown in capsule on the left. (A, C, and D) - reaction experiments at 5 GPa/1000 degrees Celsius with superimposed energy-dispersive x-ray maps of chlorine [green in (C) and (D)]. The sediment half of two-layer experiments recrystallized to garnet and clinopyroxene (Cpx), whereas orthopyroxene (Opx), magnesite (Mgs), and Na-K chlorides formed at the leading edge of the reaction zone against the peridotite. (B) - peridotite layer in the reaction experiment at 3 GPa/900 degrees Celsius contained phlogopite (Phl) behind the magnesite plus orthopyroxene zone, and Na-K chlorides were absent. (E and F) - sediment melting experiment (no peridotite included) at 4 GPa/1000 degrees Celsius showing silicate melt (E) in equilibrium with garnet (Gt), coesite (Coe), and Mg calcite (Mg-Cc) shown in (F). Scale bars - 100 μm (A and B) and 20 μm (C to F). Image credit: Förster et al, doi: 10.1126/sciadv.aau2620.](https://cdn.sci.news/images/2019/05/image_7241-Diamond-Salts-195x110.jpg)
