The meteorite named Black Beauty, which was discovered in northern Africa in 2012, provide evidence of Mars’ ancient crust and other new details during the early 100 million years of the planet’s existence.
The zirconian specked Black Beauty is the first source of samples of the ancient Martian crust, which could be as old as 4.4 billion years ago, around 100 million years after the condensation of the solar system started.
Florida State University Professor and lead study author Munir Humayun said, “A very large portion of the Martian crust must be very ancient.”
The sample of the ancient meteorite that Prof. Humayun studied with his colleagues has been officially named NWA 7533. It is a fist-sized rock that when put together weighs around 3.3 lbs or 1.5 kg.
Prof Humayun explained of the zircon grains found in the meteorite, "Since it takes time to build up a crust, and to allow that crust to process itself until it can start growing zircons, it's pretty amazing that we have such ancient zircon.”
The scientists found that the ancient meteorite had water content 10-30 times more than other meteorites that came from Mars. This indicates that these rocks originated from a planet full of water.
Meteorites are not a rare sight from the Earth since there are around 100 tons that appear daily, however those from Mars are rare, according to NASA’s Near-Earth Object Program Office manager Don Yeomans. In fact, there are less than 100 Martian rocks identified so far.
According to Prof Humayun, the Red Planet is believed to have active volcanoes 4.4 billion years ago, at the time that the zircons on the ancient meteorite started to form. These volcanic activities may have released chemical substances into the surface that formed a biosphere, "a very quick, thick atmosphere, perhaps even an ocean on the surface" which allowed life to thrive in the now uninhabitable red planet.
After this ancient subsistence, however, Mars faced several changes including serious onslaught of asteroids and comets. This in turn created huge craters and eventually caused its atmosphere and bodies water to be lost over time.
Although this is not the first time for the scientists to study Black Beauty, Humayun’s team was able to support previous studies. Moreover they are looking forward to further analyze ancient Martian history.
"We will be looking inside this rock for evidence of early micro-organisms that may have left behind chemical traces," said Prof Humayun.
The study was published in the Nov. 20 issue of Nature.
