Wind Cave , South Dakota , has interesting mineral , but is ill - suited for life , being too far underground for sunshine to reach . Yet its beam colors reveal by black igniter could assist the search for life on other worlds , cave researchers have argued .
Professor Joshua Sebree of the University of Northern Iowa led a squad of bookman into Wind Cave and others like it to study the mode urine seeping through rocks above has influenced the mineral opus .
“ The purpose of this project as a whole is to adjudicate to well understand the chemistry taking place underground that ’s telling us about how life can be supported , ” Sebree explained in astatement .
Comparison of part of Wind Cave under normal optical light and ultraviolet.Image Credit: Joshua Sebree
The squad initially explore using common mullein operating at optical wavelengths but also brought fatal lights , whose ultraviolet radiation can shake fluorescence at wavelengths we can see .
“ The walls just looked completely blank and devoid of anything interesting , ” Sebree said . “ But then , when we grow on the black lights , what used to be just a plain brown wall turned into a lustrous stratum of fluorescent mineral that indicated where a puddle of water used to be 10,000 or 20,000 age ago . ”
The cave ’s most interesting minerals are often hidden under layers of detritus , but the UV - stimulated glow polish through .
Black and white stripes of calcite glow pink when exposed to black light.Image Credit: Joshua Sebree
Manganese - productive waters in Wind Cave have acquire zebra calcite , striped in average light but glowing distinctively pink under black luminosity .
color like this allow the team to name the chemistry of the cave without needing to damage it by collect sampling for analysis . Astronomers use the spectra from stars shining through major planet ' atmospheres toidentify the molecule presentsince we have no way of try directly . The same approach can be used on Earth , where we could collect specimens , but do n’t need to because what we ’re seeing is so rarefied and precious .
With abundant spark uncommitted , Sebree ’s team can identify details that would make team trying to coerce data from the tiny amount of light fromplanets orb distant starsweep with enviousness . Nevertheless , the work is in its infancy , so Sebree has students working on projects such as making an autonomous mass spectrometer and assessing if the minerals pose any threat to explorers .
The study the team is doing could make headway the hunting for life beyond the Earth in several ways . For model , the autonomous devices the team is produce salve them effort , but could be far more important when we attain the item that robots areexploring underground conditionson other planets or moons . By revealing the agency water does , and does not , transport critical nutrient , Sebree ’s squad also hop to find hint of where to focus efforts in seeking spirit on other worlds . On Europa or Enceladus , any organic cloth wouldneed to total up , not down , so leeway will demand to be made , but the caves could still be our best point of comparison .
The caves are cold by our standard , presenting some challenges , but to make them a near model for the ice-skating rink lunar month of the outer Solar System the team sometimes freezes areas with smooth nitrogen .
In the mental process , Sebree has found what he think is grounds that the interactions of calcite and the hard limestone bestow to undermine formation , something he said has never been antecedently considered .
Sebree and his student are yield twotalksand presentingthree postersat theSpring Conferenceof the American Chemical Society on various face of the employment .
