MAROKO133 Update ai: Unexpected oxidation process: Chinese mission uncovers evidence of ru

📌 MAROKO133 Hot ai: Unexpected oxidation process: Chinese mission uncovers evidenc

A new analysis of lunar soil from China’s Chang’e-6 mission has revealed something scientists didn’t expect to find on the moon – tiny grains of iron rust.

Until now, the moon was believed to lack the oxygen conditions needed for iron oxidation, so the discovery challenges long-standing views of lunar surface chemistry and may help explain mysterious magnetic anomalies detected in several regions.

The findings, published in the peer-reviewed journal Science Advances, come from a research team led by Shandong University with support from the Institute of Geochemistry of the Chinese Academy of Sciences and Yunnan University. 

The team identified micrometre-scale crystals of hematite and maghemite, both forms of iron oxide, within the Chang’e-6 samples – a discovery that suggests previously unknown surface processes may have been shaping the moon for billions of years.

Discovery challenges decades-old assumption

For decades, scientists believed the moon lacked the conditions needed for iron oxidation, making iron oxides virtually nonexistent on its surface. Even though the Apollo missions detected some ferric iron–bearing materials, such as magnetite and iron hydroxides, the discovery was quickly dismissed.

A landmark study in 1971 argued that these compounds could not remain stable on the lunar surface and were most likely the result of contamination after the samples returned to Earth. This view shaped scientific thinking for more than half a century, reinforcing the idea that the moon was a dry, highly reduced environment with no natural pathway for iron to rust, the South China Morning Post reported.

That assumption began to crumble in recent years as remote sensing data and lunar samples suggested that iron oxidation may be more common on the moon than once believed. Since 2020, observations from the Moon Mineralogy Mapper have shown widespread hematite – a highly oxidised mineral – at high lunar latitudes. 

Then in 2022, advanced microscopic analysis of Chang’e-5 samples revealed traces of nanophase magnetite, adding further evidence that oxidation can occur on the lunar surface.

Samples show rust is intrinsic to the moon’s geology

By studying the Chang’e-6 samples returned in June last year, Chinese scientists identified micron-scale hematite grains for the first time, demonstrating that these iron oxides are a natural part of the moon’s geology. To understand how ferric iron forms on the moon, the researchers examined several possible mechanisms and ruled out some alternatives. 

They found that oxidised iron minerals appeared mainly in lunar soil breccias – rocks made of fragments fused by the extreme heat and pressure of meteorite impacts – while such minerals were absent in untouched fragments of ancient volcanic rock. The researchers suggest that the hematite grains were produced by massive impact events, like those that created the South Pole–Aitken basin and the Apollo crater on the moon’s far side.

The South Pole–Aitken basin, home to the Chang’e-6 landing site, is one of the oldest and largest impact basins in the solar system; it has experienced multiple major collisions and remained untouched by later volcanic lava flows, making it an ideal location for preserving minerals created by ancient impacts.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com

📌 MAROKO133 Breaking ai: 1,700-year-old ‘logo’ on prized Roman cage cups uncovered

An archaeologist has made an astonishing discovery while examining diatreta, ancient Roman glassware: the imagery actually served as an ancient logo, signaling the artistic workshop behind the splendidly crafted work of decorative art.

As pinnacle examples of Roman glassmaking, the diatreta have been admired for centuries. Handcrafted from a solid glass block, the identity of the artisans behind these elegant and luxurious vases remained mysterious until the author of a recent study performed the simple gesture of turning a diatreta around while viewing the collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

What was once overlooked as purely decorative, art historian and glassblower Hallie Meredith was compelled to research the motifs found on the reverse sides of the vessel, such as diamonds and leaves. She discovered they were part of a visual vocabulary that marked the workshops that produced these prized possessions.

In the second study in her series, a professor from the University of Washington State continued to crack open a previously unknown aspect of Roman craftsmanship. The visual signatures suggest that workshops operated not in isolation, but as a cooperative group of artisans who consciously left their identifiers behind.

The significance extends far beyond the discovery that these artists left behind their signature at all, but rather in illuminating a marginalized group, redirecting the spotlight away from the elite class for whom the objects were made, onto the skilled individuals who crafted them.

They “…represent unappreciated evidence of production that was more nuanced and complex in terms of technique, economics, and social structure than previously thought,” as stated in the latest study in World Archaeology.

An ancient logo of an artistic collective

While Meredith was casually admiring an ancient Roman diatreta, she wondered if their decorations held an intentional pattern. For centuries, scholars focused on the inscriptions these glass vases bore, wishing the owners blessings, but ignored the accompanying shapes, such as diamonds and leaves.

As she found the same symbols on other vessels scattered across private collections and museum archives, she began to make the connection that these recurring motifs acted like a stamp, marking the maker, or in this case, makers behind the openwork vessels, Science Blog continued. Not only a testament to fine craftsmanship, the Roman diatreta also, thanks to Meredith’s astute observation, now reflects the social network behind the item of luxury, according to Archaeology News.

Artisans might have been multilingual

Her own experience as a glassblower informed her approach, beginning with her decision to simply rotate the object. She proceeded to study it in relation to others she soon examined, bringing a new perspective to the longstanding debates on how they were made. Perhaps these hands weren’t exactly anonymous. They were indeed leaving their mark along with their good wishes to those who commissioned this artwork. “From us to you,” in other words.

Her research, more broadly, concerns how craftworkers communicated using irregular spellings, mixed alphabets, and unconventional inscriptions. Meredith proposed that these puzzling and remarkable mistakes might even point to a multilingual workshop. She’s currently developing a database to track non-standard writing in artifacts, as reported by Science Blog.

Meredith effectively cracked open a new, unprecedented avenue of research, and it all started with the simplest idea, perhaps reflecting the thought process of these ancient Roman artisans when they conceived their logo.

The study is available in World Archaeology.

🔗 Sumber: interestingengineering.com