'Black Beauty' meteorite expands the window for when life might have existed on Mars
The early surface of Mars consisting of a liquid magma ocean crystallized extremely rapidly, just 20 million year after the formation of the solar system. Thereafter, a solid crust emerged on the red planet potentially housing oceans with water and life. This was about 130 million years before a corresponding solid crust appeared on Earth. New evidence for this rapid crystallization and crust formation on Mars from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. The study, published in the journal Nature, based on the analysis of the rare Mars meteorite Black Beauty, significantly expands the window for when life might have existed on Mars.
"Zircon is a very robust mineral that is ideally suited to provide absolute ages. In this context, the zircons can be used to establish a temporal framework to understand the formation history of the Martian crust", says Professor Martin Bizzarro.
![]() |
The oldest known zircon from Mars [Credit: Martin Bizzarro] |
However, it required a certain amount of courage to reach this result.
We crushed the meteorite
The original 319.8 grams heavy meteorite Black Beauty was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011. It soon became apparent that the meteorite was something special and it currently has a sales price of approx. $ 10,000 per gram. A year ago, Professor Martin Bizzarro managed to acquire 44 grams of Black Beauty with help from various funding agencies and exchange of meteorites from the museum's collection.
![]() |
The Martian meteorite Black Beauty [Credit: NASA] |
"Today, I'm glad we chose that strategy. It released seven zircons, one of which is the oldest known zircon from Mars. And from the zircons and their content of hafnium, we can now conclude that the crystallization of the surface of Mars went extremely fast: already 20 million years after the formation of the solar system, Mars had a solid crust that could potentially could house oceans and perhaps also life."
Source: University of Copenhagen [June 28, 2018]
Post A Comment
No comments :