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Outer space source of some Earth minerals
"The extreme temperature at which the Earth's core formed more than four billion years ago would have completely stripped any precious metals from the rocky crust and deposited them in the core," said University of Toronto Associate Professor James Brenan, who led the study. "So, the next question is why are there detectable, even mineable, concentrations of precious metals such as platinum and rhodium in the rock portion of the Earth today?
"Our results indicate that they could not have ended up there by any known internal process, and instead must have been added back, likely by a 'rain' of extraterrestrial debris, such as comets and meteorites."
The scientists said the idea of extraterrestrial 'rain' might also explain another mystery, which is how the rock portion of the Earth came to contain hydrogen, carbon and phosphorous -- the essential components for life, which were likely lost during Earth's violent beginning.
The research, co-authored by University of Maryland Professor William McDonough, appears in the journal Nature Geoscience.
Copyright 2009 by United Press International
This news arrived on: 10/20/2009
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