Scientists Find Rare Meteorite From Mars With Signs of Ancient Water (msn.com) 8
"I didn't think a rock like this existed on Earth," a geologist at the Lunar and Planetary Institute in Texas told the Washington Post. It looks like a polished rock, dark brown with a clay-colored stripe — but it's actually one of the oldest Mars meteorites ever found, blasted by an impact from the surface of Mars billions of years ago:
Technically speaking it's a collection of eight rock fragments, the largest of which is about the size of a fist. Nearly two pounds of the meteorite was discovered in the Sahara in Mali in 2022, and most is now held by a museum in Maine. Within two years, an initial examination determined the meteorite hailed from Mars; scientists are now finally digging deeper, with stunning results.
It offers records of "interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water," says Lee Saper, co-author of a new paper recently published in Science. "It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique," said Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the lead author of a new paper published in Science. "One of the paper's reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars."
Its mix of minerals "tells a story about how the planet's crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water," NASA's JPL says in an announcement. The Washington Post reports: The story begins 4.1 billion years ago, when crystals of a mineral called zircon probably solidified out of molten magma on Mars. "That was a game changer," [said Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California], since scientists can date zircon very precisely, and it has been rare in other Mars meteorites. The date immediately put the Teghaza meteorite on special footing, alongside only two other Mars rocks known to have formed by 4 billion years ago...
Perhaps most intriguingly, the researchers also saw signs that the rock had been exposed to water during its evolution, a find detailed in work published this summer in Science Advances.
It offers records of "interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water," says Lee Saper, co-author of a new paper recently published in Science. "It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique," said Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Southern California, the lead author of a new paper published in Science. "One of the paper's reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars."
Its mix of minerals "tells a story about how the planet's crust formed from cooling magma before it was eventually altered by subsurface water," NASA's JPL says in an announcement. The Washington Post reports: The story begins 4.1 billion years ago, when crystals of a mineral called zircon probably solidified out of molten magma on Mars. "That was a game changer," [said Yang Liu, a planetary scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California], since scientists can date zircon very precisely, and it has been rare in other Mars meteorites. The date immediately put the Teghaza meteorite on special footing, alongside only two other Mars rocks known to have formed by 4 billion years ago...
Perhaps most intriguingly, the researchers also saw signs that the rock had been exposed to water during its evolution, a find detailed in work published this summer in Science Advances.
Very cool (Score:2)
Always wished I could find a meteorite, but the Sahara is too hot and Antarctica is too cold. Maybe there are some in the Atacama, I'll have to look the next time we go to Peru.
Re: (Score:2)
Go to the Mojave instead. Lots of time in the year right now where it won't absolutely roast you alive and camping is fairly pleasant (if a bit chilly at night.)
Re: (Score:3)
Re: (Score:2)
A brother-in-law lives in Arequipa and another in Tacna, and a bunch of nieces and nephews in Lima, so we're more likely to go to the Atacama. An advantage of the Atacama over the Mojave is there are no plants to get in the way, there are areas where precipitation is measured in millimeters per decade.
Water makes good sense (Score:2)
The vast quantities of water ice that float in space, the further out you look the more of it there is, tells us that early planet formation will occur with lots of water right at their centres. Only with time does it get expelled to the surface.
W T F (Score:2)
This is mostly expected, except... how does a knucklehead geologist who "didn't think a rock like this existed on Earth" get a job at place called the Lunar and Planetary Institute? Is it a fake institute that is actually a money laundering operation or something? Is he also surprised by continental drift?
Even nutjob Panspermists like me know that it's expected to find lots of Mars rocks on Earth from that period. Like..... D'UUUUUuuuuuuuuh! That's our most objective, rational argument!