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Water could emerge in connection with the formation of terrestrial planets, according to a new analysis of a Martian meteorite called North West Africa (NWA) 7533.
An artist’s impression of the young Mars. Image credit: M. Kornmesser / ESO / N. Risinger, skysurvey.org.
“There are two hypotheses about the emergence of water,” said Professor Martin Bizzarro, researcher at the Center for Star and Planet Formation at the University of Copenhagen.
“First, it happens on planets by accident, when asteroids containing water collide with the planet in question.”
“The other hypothesis is that water emerges in relation to the formation of the planet.”
“Our study suggests that this hypothesis is correct, and if it is true, it is extremely exciting, because it means that the presence of water is a product of the process of the formation of the planet.”
If the team’s theory turns out to be correct, life in planetary systems may have had a better chance of developing than previously thought.
Their research shows that there was water on Mars for the first 90 million years of the planet’s existence.
“In astronomical times, it takes a long time for water-rich asteroids to bombard the planets of the inner solar system like Earth and Mars, according to the first hypothesis. And it’s very sensational, ”said Dr Bizzarro.
“This suggests that water emerged with the formation of Mars. And that tells us that water can be found naturally on planets and doesn’t require an external source like water-rich asteroids.
The 4.43 billion year old Martian meteorite NWA 7533. Image credit: Meteorites.tv.
NWA 7533, the 4.43 billion-year-old regolith meteorite studied by the team, originates from the original Martian crust and offers a unique insight into events during the formation of the solar system.
“We have developed a new technique which tells us that Mars in its infancy suffered one or more severe asteroid impacts,” said lead author Dr. Zhengbin Deng, researcher at the University of Paris.
“The impact,” reveals NWA 7533, “created kinetic energy that released a lot of oxygen. And the only mechanism that could possibly have caused the release of such large amounts of oxygen is the presence of water.
Liquid water is a prerequisite for the assembly of organic molecules, which happened at least 3.5 billion years ago with the emergence of life on Earth.
“The new analysis from NWA 7533 shows that the asteroid’s impact on Mars released a lot of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere,” Dr Deng said.
“This means that the atmosphere rich in carbon dioxide may have caused temperatures to rise and thus allowed liquid water to exist on the surface of Mars.”
The results were published in the journal Scientific advances.
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Zhengbin Deng et al. 2020. Early oxidation of the Martian crust triggered by impacts. Scientific advances 6 (44): eabc4941; doi: 10.1126 / sciadv.abc4941
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