An international collaboration involving scientists in Tenerife, the US and the UK, have used Diamond Light Source, the UK’s national synchrotron to investigate the effect of gravity on rocky planets. They examined three billion+ year old rocks from the Moon collected during the Apollo missions, as well as meteorites from Mars, Vesta, and other environments collected in Antarctica.
The team – led by Dr Matt Pankhurst, Instituto Volcanológico de Canarias/(the Canarian Volcanlogical Institute (INVOLCAN) with co-investigators Dr Ryan Zeigler, NASA; Dr Rhian Jones, University of Manchester; Dr Beverley Coldwell, ITER; Dr Hongchang Wang, Diamond Light Source; Dr Robert Atwood, Diamond Light Source and Dr Nghia Vo, Diamond Light Source – aims to use the samples to make comparisons between processes and timescales that form similar rocks that are collected from different gravitational conditions.
