The Meteorite & # 39; Black Beauty & # 39; reveals that Mars could have harbored life before Earth

of an ocean of liquid magma has crystallized extremely rapidly, just 20 million years after the formation of the solar system Source: Institute of Physics of the Globe of Paris. 19659005] A solid crust, potentially oceans with water and life, emerged about 130 million years before the Earth's surface solidified, according to scientists who analyzed a meteorite rare called "Black Beauty". The first surface of Mars consisting of an ocean of liquid magma has crystallized extremely rapidly, just 20 million years after the formation of the solar system

thereafter, a solid crust emerged on the red planet. It was about 130 million years before a corresponding solid crust appeared on Earth. Researchers from the Natural History Museum of Denmark have found new evidence for this rapid crystallization and crust formation on Mars. The study, based on the analysis of the rare black meteorite Black Beauty, greatly expands the window of life on Mars

The formation of crust is an important step in the development of terrestrial planets, and this that makes Black Beauty special and expensive is that it contains small pieces of Mars crust. Specifically, Black Beauty contains rare mineral zircon, in which the researchers found a high concentration of hafnium. "Zircon is a very strong mineral that is ideal for providing absolute ages, and in this context zircons can be used to establish a time frame for understanding the history of Martian crust formation." Martin Bizzarro, from the University of Copenhagen, Denmark

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"Zircon also acts as a small time capsule because it preserves information about the environment where and when it was created, "said Bizzarro." In this case, a time capsule with hafnium that comes from the first crust of Mars, which was present about 100 millions of years before the creation of the oldest zircon of Black Beauty, "he said." Thus, Mars took an early departure from Earth, whose solid crust did not occur. formed much later, "he said. took some courage to achieve this result

Specifically, Black Beauty contains rare mineral zircon, in which researchers found a high concentration of # 39; hafnium. (Image Source: NASA)

The original black meteorite of 319.8 grams was found in the Sahara Desert in 2011. It soon became apparent that the meteorite was something special and that She currently has a selling price of about $ 10,000 a gram. A year ago, Bizzarro managed to acquire 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 was that Black Beauty's zircons are extremely small, which required a brave strategy: we crushed our precious meteorite, or to be precise: We crushed five grams," Bizzarro said. .

"He released seven zircons, one of which is the oldest zircon known to Mars.And from the zircons and their hafnium content, we can now conclude that the crystallization of the surface of Mars is became 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 possibly also life, "he said.

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