Asteroid news: the Martian space rock reveals signs of life on the red planet and Mars | Science | New



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Asteroid collisions with the red planet 11 million years ago caused the explosion of pieces of meteorites that swept the surface of planets and crossed space. A group of these meteors fell on Earth in 1911, the first being in Egypt, and were named the nakhlites. These nakhlites revealed that once upon a time there was running water under the surface of the Red Planets.

The planetary scientists at the University of Glasgow used a technique to analyze these space rocks, claiming that they illuminated the process that generated on Mars of potentially living, life-generating liquid water.

Dr. Luke Daly, research associate at the School of Geography and Earth Sciences at the University of Glasgow, said: "There is a huge amount of information on Mars locked up in the small pieces of the red planet who fell on the Earth in the form of meteorites.

"What we have seen is that the model of deformation in minerals exactly matches the distribution of spoilage veins that have formed from the Martian fluids."

The analysis of nakhlite revealed that Martian space rocks formed when the planet was hit by two asteroids, the first 633 million years ago and the second there are about 11 million years ago. # 39; years.

The first formed a crater of massive impact on the volcanic rock of the Martian surface.

Dr. Daly said, "This impact was large enough and hot enough to melt the ice under the Martian surface and send it through the newly formed cracks in the rock.

"This actually formed a temporary hydrothermal system below the surface of Mars, which altered the composition of minerals in the rocks near these cracks.

"This suggests that an asteroidal impact was the mysterious mechanism of the generation of liquid water in the nakhlites long after the volcano that had formed them on Mars was extinct."

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Dr. Daly said, "We are currently trying to understand the Martian geology through these meteorites without knowing what part of the surface of Mars these so-called nakhlites came from.

"Our new discoveries narrowly limit the possible origins of nakhlites.

"We now know that we are looking for a complex volcanic edifice, 1.3 to 1.4 billion years old, with a crater of about 633 million years old and another one. about 11 million years ".

He added: "Very few places on Mars could meet this requirement.

"It's an interplanetary detective work that's still going on, but we're looking forward to solving the case."

In 2011, the US space agency NASA sent the Mars Curiosity robot to the red planet to try to determine if Mars had environmental conditions conducive to extraterrestrial life.

At the beginning of its mission, the unmanned probe spotted the chemical and mineral signs of the usual environments of the past on Mars.

NASA has actually announced liquid water proofs on Mars in 2015.

The space agency said in a statement: "It is assumed that dark, narrow, 100-meter-long trails called recurrent slope lines that descend to Mars have been formed by running waters.

"Recently, planetary scientists have detected hydrated salts on these slopes of the Hale crater, thus corroborating their initial assumption that streaks are well formed by liquid water."

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