GeoLog

experiment

The best Christmas gift you could ask for: how a rare solar event created a once-in-a-lifetime Martian experiment

The best Christmas gift you could ask for: how a rare solar event created a once-in-a-lifetime Martian experiment

One of the realities of studying the Earth, planetary or space sciences is that we are attempting to observe an experiment that has been in progress for billions of years, with variables that are most often far outside of our control. Many researchers try to understand these systems by recreating aspects of it, either in analogue experiments or by using simulations, where the variables can be adju ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Monday: Artificial peridotite takes its gold coat off

Imaggeo On Monday: Artificial peridotite takes its gold coat off

Sometimes in order to test a theory about how processes work below the surface of the Earth, scientists need to recreate minerals found in very specific circumstances. This photograph was taken through a binocular microscope during a critical step of the creation of artificial peridotite: extraction of the artificial peridotite from its gold capsule. The sample is a little cylinder, 3 mm long with ...[Read More]

Imaggeo On Monday: Space plasma in a jar

Imaggeo On Monday: Space plasma in a jar

Laboratory visualisation of solar wind interaction with Earth’s magnetic field. The Van Allen radiation belt, Earth’s magnetosphere, “bow shock” and a solar coronal hole can all be seen, and are emphasized with the ‘Planeterrella experiment‘, a vacuum chamber in the shape of a bell jar with the ‘Sun’ on the left (in the form of a large metallic sphere) and the ‘Earth& ...[Read More]