Quote:
Originally Posted by Kelfazin
Also to the OP, I just realized Fraser wrote an article on this exact story.
The OP article says "We also found ferrum silicate that can not be produced anywhere, except in space”
to which Fraser says "While I'm not a chemist, I couldn't find any information on "ferrum silicate." Seemingly, it doesn't exist."
Is Swift reading this thread? Maybe he knows if ferrum silicate exists? |
Sorry I'm late to the party, I was away for vacation.
I've never heard of ferrum. If I had to guess, it is a bad translation of a Russian article by a Macedonian News Agency of either ferrous (iron in a +2 oxidation state) or ferric (iron +3). I suppose it also could be a real word in one of those languages. Or it could be complete nonsense.
I feel comfortable saying that there are multiple ferric and ferrous silicate minerals on Earth, but I'd have to do some work to get a count.
As far as the picture of quartz crystals with holes in them... without knowing more details (how the picture was taken, how the sample was prepared), it is hard to say much of anything about it. But it is quite possible for quartz to have holes in it, I've done it many times and it can happen in natural crystals. And the picture to me doesn't even look like holes, but either thinner, or uncolored sections of crystal.
Certainly, both iron silicate and quartz are very common, both on Earth, and in other bodies, including interplanetary dust particles or in comets.