XPost: sci.space.policy   
   From: g_d_pusch_remove_underscores@xnet.com   
   Copy: wallacethinmintr@eircom.net   
      
   wallacethinmintr@eircom.net (Russell Wallace) writes:   
      
   > On 31 Jan 2004 09:20:21 -0600, g_d_pusch_remove_underscores@xnet.com   
   > (Gordon D. Pusch) wrote:   
   >   
   >> Why would you have that feeling?  Argon is an inert gas, so it doesn't   
   >> bond to anything (well, except for fluorine and chlorine, under contrived   
   >> laboratory conditions), and its melting point is not that much higher   
   >> than nitrogen's.  You won't find frozen argon lying around until you're   
   >> almost out to Neptune...   
   >   
   > But it's produced by the decay of potassium-40, so shouldn't rocks   
   > pretty much everywhere contain some?   
      
   "Some," as in trace amounts. Furthmore, the "Big Whack" that created the   
   clound of debris that formed the Moon heated it to such high temperatures   
   that it lost nearly its entire supply of volatiles --- including most   
   of its potassium (radioactive or otherwise).   
      
   As for asteroids, they are believed to be basically porous "rubble piles"   
   that may be expected to outgas any decay-generated argon as fast as it is   
   produced.   
      
      
   > (Is that where Earth's argon supply comes from? Our atmosphere is ~1%   
   > argon IIRC.)   
      
   Yes --- _trace_ amounts of argon, just as I said.   
      
      
   -- Gordon D. Pusch   
      
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