Nature Geoscience reports that anhydrous mafic rock melted in flowing hot hydrogen, iron oxide became metal, and a large quantity of water was present within hours. The metal drew phosphorus out of the silicate. The authors say the melt stands in for millimetre-to-centimetre silicate pebbles in a hot, hydrogen-rich atmosphere, and they read it as a growing planet forming water in its own air. Science News and Eos searches did not return this experiment.
Nature Geoscience describes a peer-reviewed laboratory run in which anhydrous mafic rock was melted while hot hydrogen flowed across it. Iron oxide in the rock became metal. Within hours, the melt held a large quantity of water. The journal's own wording is that the measured part is a dry melt together with hydrogen, water and metal.[1]
The same run reports a second measurement. The metal that formed drew phosphorus out of the silicate. Water in large quantity and phosphorus leaving the silicate are paired observations from one melt, not a repeat by another laboratory. Both sit in the Nature Geoscience paper and nowhere else in this desk's checked news pages.[1]
The authors say the melt stands in for silicate pebbles whose size runs from a millimetre to a centimetre, falling through atmosphere that is hot and rich in hydrogen. They offer that picture as their reading of a rocky planet that forms water in the air around it while the planet is still growing. The reading is theirs. The measurement remains the dry melt, the hydrogen, the water and the metal. The laboratory melted dry mafic rock while a stream of hot hydrogen crossed the sample. Iron oxide in that rock turned into metal, and within hours the melt contained a large quantity of water. The new metal also drew phosphorus away from the silicate around it. The authors treat the setup as a stand-in for silicate pebbles ranging from a millimetre to a centimetre, falling through air that is hot and rich in hydrogen. They read the result as one picture of a rocky planet forming water in the atmosphere while the planet is still growing. What the paper measured is narrower than that reading: dry melt, hydrogen, water and metal, plus phosphorus leaving the silicate.[1]
