[ad_1]
A solid crust, capable of harboring oceans with water and life, has emerged on Mars about 130 million years before the Earth's surface solidifies, say scientists who have badyzed a rare meteorite called Black Beauty. The first surface of Mars consisting of an ocean of liquid magma has crystallized extremely rapidly, only 20 million years after the formation of the solar system. Subsequently, a solid crust appeared on the red planet, able to house the oceans with water and life. It was about 130 million years before a corresponding solid crust appeared on Earth.
Researchers at the Museum of Natural History in Denmark have found new evidence for this rapid crystallization and crust formation on Mars. The study, based on the badysis of the rare Mars Beauty Black meteorite, expands considerably the window to find out when life could have existed on Mars. The formation of crusts is an important step in the development of telluric planets, and what makes Black Beauty special and expensive is that it contains small pieces of the Mars crust.
Specifically, Black Beauty contains rare mineral zircon, in which the researchers found a high concentration of hafnium. "Zircon is a very robust mineral that is ideal for providing absolute ages. Thus, zircons can be used to establish a time frame for understanding the history of the formation of the Martian crust," said Martin Bizzarro, from the University of Copenhagen. Denmark. "Zircon also acts as a small time capsule because it preserves information about the environment where and when it was created," Bizzarro said.
"In this case, a time capsule with hafnium that comes from the first crust of Mars," he said, "Mars took an early departure from the Earth, whose solid crust does not occur. was formed much later, "he said, however, it took some courage to achieve this result.
The 319.8-gram Black Beauty heavy meteorite was discovered in the desert Sahara in 2011. It quickly became clear that the meteorite was something special and that she currently had sales of about $ 10,000 per gram.Bizzarro was able to acquiring 44 grams of Black Beauty with the help of various funding agencies and meteorite exchange from the museum's collection
"One of the big challenges is that Black Beauty zircons are extremely small. It required a brave strategy: we crushed our precious meteorite, or to be precise: we crushed five grams, "said Bizzarro.
"He released seven zircons, one of which is the oldest known zircon of Mars. zircons and their hafnium content, 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 harbor the oceans and maybe also life, "he said.
Source link
