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Full-Text Articles in Physical Sciences and Mathematics

Clouds In The Ancient Lunar Atmosphere: Water Ice Nucleation On Aerosol Simulants, Mariana C. Aguilar Jan 2024

Clouds In The Ancient Lunar Atmosphere: Water Ice Nucleation On Aerosol Simulants, Mariana C. Aguilar

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Today’s moon is vastly different from what it was 3 billion years ago. At that time, it was home to a collisional atmosphere formed through massive amounts of volcanism, releasing enough subsurface gas to sustain surface pressures of up to 1 kPa. Observations of our solar system have taught us that all dense atmospheres are host to clouds and aerosols, and we expect the Moon’s to be no different. Knowing when, where, and under what conditions cloud particles form is important for understanding the evolution of the lunar atmosphere, how it reacted to temperature gradients, and how it cycled volatiles. …


Using Cold War-Era Satellite Imagery To Inform Historic Land Cover Classification, Nicholas Hamp-Adams Aug 2020

Using Cold War-Era Satellite Imagery To Inform Historic Land Cover Classification, Nicholas Hamp-Adams

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

No abstract provided.


Fracture Networks On Mars: Preservation Of Surface And Subsurface Environments At Mawrth Vallis, Phoebe Kinzelman Aug 2019

Fracture Networks On Mars: Preservation Of Surface And Subsurface Environments At Mawrth Vallis, Phoebe Kinzelman

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

Mawrth Vallis is an outflow channel on Mars that cuts through some of the planet’s most ancient terrains, which contain many different types of fractures. The ExoMars rover mission will search for biosignatures on Mars, and this site was proposed as one of the two final candidate landing sites for the rover. A biosignature is any object that shows evidence of past or present life. Fracture networks are a high priority for the mission because they might contain minerals precipitated by fluid interaction, and these minerals could trap and preserve biosignatures, critical for our understanding of ancient processes. In this …


Solving The Mystery Of The Atacama Nitrate Deposits: The Use Of Stable Oxygen Isotope Analysis And Geochemistry, Ji-Hye Seo Jul 2011

Solving The Mystery Of The Atacama Nitrate Deposits: The Use Of Stable Oxygen Isotope Analysis And Geochemistry, Ji-Hye Seo

The Journal of Purdue Undergraduate Research

The Atacama Desert, Chile, one of the oldest and driest deserts on Earth, is unique because it contains the largest known nitrate deposits in the world. The origin of these nitrate deposits has been a mystery since their discovery in the 1800s. There are two possible sources of natural nitrate: microbiological processes and photochemical reactions. The majority of material on Earth follows mass-dependent fractionation between stable oxygen isotopes with the abundance of 17Ο (denoted by δ) as half that of 18O. This relationship is quantified by Δ17O = δ17O – ½ δ18O, …