The dynamic atmospheric and aeolian environment of Jezero crater, Mars.

Despite the importance of sand and dust to Mars geomorphology, weather, and exploration, the processes that move sand and that raise dust to maintain Mars' ubiquitous dust haze and to produce dust storms have not been well quantified in situ, with missions lacking either the necessary sensors or a sufficiently active aeolian environment. Perseverance rover's novel environmental sensors and Jezero crater's dusty environment remedy this. In Perseverance's first 216 sols, four convective vortices raised dust locally, while, on average, four passed the rover daily, over 25% of which were significantly dusty ("dust devils"). More rarely, dust lifting by nonvortex wind gusts was produced by daytime convection cells advected over the crater by strong regional daytime upslope winds, which also control aeolian surface features. One such event covered 10 times more area than the largest dust devil, suggesting that dust devils and wind gusts could raise equal amounts of dust under nonstorm conditions.

Complex Brines and Their Implications for Habitability.

There is evidence that life on Earth originated in cold saline waters around scorching hydrothermal vents, and that similar conditions might exist or have existed on Mars, Europa, Ganymede, Enceladus, and other worlds. Could potentially habitable complex brines with extremely low freezing temperatures exist in the shallow subsurface of these frigid worlds? Earth, Mars, and carbonaceous chondrites have similar bulk elemental abundances, but while the Earth is depleted in the most volatile elements, the Icy Worlds of the outer solar system are expected to be rich in them. The cooling of ionic solutions containing substances that likely exist in the Icy Worlds could form complex brines with the lowest eutectic temperature possible for the compounds available in them. Indeed, here, we show observational and theoretical evidence that even elements present in trace amounts in nature are concentrated by freeze-thaw cycles, and therefore contribute significantly to the formation of brine reservoirs that remain liquid throughout the year in some of the coldest places on Earth. This is interesting because the eutectic temperature of water-ammonia solutions can be as low as ~160 K, and significant fractions of the mass of the Icy Worlds are estimated to be water substance and ammonia. Thus, briny solutions with eutectic temperature of at least ~160 K could have formed where, historically, temperature have oscillated above and below ~160 K. We conclude that complex brines must exist in the shallow subsurface of Mars and the Icy Worlds, and that liquid saline water should be present where ice has existed, the temperature is above ~160 K, and evaporation and sublimation have been inhibited.

Experimental evidence for the formation of liquid saline water on Mars.

Evidence for deliquescence of perchlorate salts has been discovered in the Martian polar region while possible brine flows have been observed in the equatorial region. This appears to contradict the idea that bulk deliquescence is too slow to occur during the short periods of the Martian diurnal cycle during which conditions are favorable for it. We conduct laboratory experiments to study the formation of liquid brines at Mars environmental conditions. We find that when water vapor is the only source of water, bulk deliquescence of perchlorates is not rapid enough to occur during the short periods of the day during which the temperature is above the salts' eutectic value, and the humidity is above the salts' deliquescence value. However, when the salts are in contact with water ice, liquid brine forms in minutes, indicating that aqueous solutions could form temporarily where salts and ice coexist on the Martian surface and in the shallow subsurface. KEY POINTS: The formation of brines at Martian conditions was studied experimentallyBulk deliquescence from water vapor is too slow to occur diurnally on MarsBrines form in minutes when salts are placed in direct contact with ice.

Ammonium 1-hydroxy-2-(2-pyridinio)ethane-1,1-diyldiphosphonate dihydrate and potassium 1-hydroxy-2-(2-pyridinio)ethane-1,1-diyldiphosphonate dihydrate.

The crystal structures of the title compounds, ammonium risedronate dihydrate, NH4+.C7H10NO7P2-.2H2O, (I), and potassium risedronate dihydrate, K+.C7H10NO7P2-.2H2O, (II), have been determined from single-crystal X-ray data collected at 120 K. Compound (I) forms a three-dimensional hydrogen-bonded network which connects the ammonium and risedronate ions and the water molecules. In compound (II), the K+ ions are seven-coordinated in a capped distorted trigonal prism. The coordination polyhedra form chains by corner-sharing, and these chains are connected by phosphonate groups into layers in the ac plane. The layers are stacked and connected by hydrogen bonds in the b direction. The risedronate conformation is determined by intramolecular interactions fine-tuned by crystal packing effects. All H-atom donors in both structures are involved in hydrogen bonding, with D...A distances between 2.510 (2) and 3.009 (2) A.

Synthesis of New Sulfur Heteroaromatics Isoelectronic with Dibenzo[g,p]chrysene by Photocyclization of Thienyl- and Phenyl-Substituted Ethenes.

A series of new sulfur heteroarenes, isoelectronic with dibenzo[g,p]chrysene, have been prepared by double photocyclization of the corresponding tetraaryl substituted ethenes. The first step proceeds efficiently in each case, and the corresponding intermediate sulfur heteroarenes, isoelectronic with phenanthrene, have been isolated. The second ring closure is only efficient when one of the participating aryl substituents is thienyl, which thus manifests a higher electron density on the carbon atom involved in the excited singlet state reaction. Most of the new compounds are of minimal solubility in common solvents and do not display improved electron donor properties otherwise commonly found among heteroaromatics.