Phosphate minerals: a window into terrestrial planetary formation history

这个研究计划的主要目标是提高我们对距离我们最近的行星火星形成的理解。火星是与地球同时形成的岩石行星之一。形成其表面的岩石的成分似乎主要是火山(玄武岩)，类似于早期地球的样子。它显然有火山的历史，我们可以从奥林匹斯山脉上看到的，这是一座26公里高的火山。就像地球上的岩石一样，火星上的岩石也不尽相同。每一块岩石和组成岩石的每一种矿物都显示出各种各样的纹理和成分，所有这些都告诉我们一些关于这颗红色星球的地质情况。目前，“探索”火星的唯一途径是利用无人轨道航天器和漫游车传回的数据，以及对火星陨石的研究。火星陨石是从地球上发射并降落在地球上的岩石，其中许多都存放在安大略省皇家博物馆，我在这个项目中可以直接接触到它。

The major goal of this research program is to improve our understanding of the formation of our closest planet Mars. Mars is one of the rocky planets which began to form at the same time as the Earth. The composition of the rocks which form its surface appear to be largely volcanic (basaltic) similar to what the early Earth would have been like. It has obviously had a volcanic history as we can see from Olympus Mons, a 26 kilometre high volcano on its surface. Just as with terrestrial rocks, Martian rocks are not all the same. Each rock, and each mineral that makes up the rock show a wide variety of textures and compositions all of which tell us something about the geology of the red planet. Currently, the only way to "explore" Mars is with data sent back from unmanned orbiting spacecraft and rovers, and through the study of Martian meteorites. Martian meteorites are rocks that have been launched from the planet and landed on Earth many that are housed at the Royal Ontario Museum that I have direct access to for this project.