Mars meteorite 1st look at Red Planet's ancient crust

Fox News ^ | November 21, 2013 | Mike Wall, Space.com

[SunkenCiv]

A meteorite found last year in the Sahara Desert is likely the first recognized piece of ancient Martian crust, a new study reports.

The Mars meteorite NWA 7533 is 4.4 billion years old and contains evidence of long-ago asteroid strikes, suggesting that the rock came from the Red Planet's ancient and cratered southern highlands, researchers said...

Humayun and his colleagues subjected NWA (short for northwest Africa, where the rock was found) 7533 to a series of analyses. The researchers determined the meteorite's age, for example, by determining that crystals within it called zircons formed about 4.4 billion years ago...

The team also found high concentrations of normally rare elements such as nickel, osmium and iridium in NWA 7533, indicating that the rock formed in a region that was pummeled by chondritic meteors, which are relatively enriched in these materials.

Further, after measuring the abundances of certain elements within the meteorite, Humayun and his team were able to calculate a thickness for the Red Planet's crust...

Though researchers believe ancient Mars was relatively warm and wet, the team found no hydrous silicate minerals — which form in the presence of liquid water — within NWA 7533. Scientists will likely unearth more such puzzling details as they study the meteorite further, Humayun said.

[SunkenCiv]

Sawn surface of the Mars meteorite NWA 7533 showing both light and dark clasts in grey matrix. (LUC LABENNE)

[SunkenCiv]

Thanks null and void. Interesting, but this appears to be a case of heaping Pelion on Ossa to assault Olympus Mons. The lack of any sign of water is, however, one of those heads-I-win-tails-you-lose kinds of things. Probably just a chunk of asteroidal material blasted off by (ta-da!) a chunk of carbonaceous chondrite. :')

join or quit view topics view or post blog bookmark post new topic subscribe

[NormsRevenge]

Zircons from 4.4 billion years ago.

Made back when labor was really cheap. :-)

[MUDDOG]

Humayun and his team were able to calculate a thickness for the Red Planet's crust

This is a darn'd clever bunch!

[Starstruck]

The Mars meteorite NWA 7533 is 4.4 billion years old and contains evidence of long-ago asteroid strikes, suggesting that the rock came from the Red Planet's ancient and cratered southern highlands, researchers said

Somebody up there playing pool? Must be a black hole nearby.

[mwilli20]

Can someone with some understanding of this field explain, how do we know that this is a piece of Mars? Thank you!

[onyx]

Very interesting.
Thank you so much, SunkenCiv!

[Thumper1960]

Since no one has ever been to Mars to take comparative samples, wouldn’t this be conjecture? Sure, they could have taken spectrometry readings of Mars, but all this seems like guessing and extrapolation.

[SunkenCiv]

I very much doubt it, myself. IMHO, the evidence for it is (at best) threadbare, hence my comment up in message 2.

[blackdog]

Grant back-up plan for scientists one the whole global warming / climate change thingy goes bust.

"This rock is from mars. I can prove it and if you don't give me money, much bigger ones will soon be arriving." - Mars Science Chair @ Cal Berkley.

[Slyfox]

The first recognized piece of ancient Martian crust

[Rio]

Because it’s red?

No. That doesn’t work. It sounds to me like they’re just making a bunch of stuff up.

[ArtDodger]

Certain isotopes are present that can only be expected in something from Mars....

[SunkenCiv]

http://www1.macys.com/cms/slp/2/Cubic-Zirconia-Jewelry

[SunkenCiv]

It’s little known, but the lunar crust is stuffed with cheese; that discovery inspired the big pizza chains to follow suit.

[SunkenCiv]

Meteorites are what remains of meteors which make it all the way through the atmosphere (everyone knows that I’m sure, but just so we’re all on the same page). Analyzing their composition is the way they are classified, and those with similar compositions are generally thought to be from the same source.

In the case of the Martian rocks, while there has never been a sample return mission (and I’d be against such a thing without certain precautions), the US has put probes on the surface which have analyzed the composition of Mars’ rocks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martian_meteorite

[snip] By the early 1980s, it was obvious that the SNC group of meteorites (Shergottites, Nakhlites, Chassignites) were significantly different from most other meteorite types. Among these differences were younger formation ages, a different oxygen isotopic composition, the presence of aqueous weathering products, and some similarity in chemical composition to analyses of the Martian surface rocks in 1976 by the Viking landers. [/snip]

meteorites from Mars:

http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn8004#.UpKoUMTrxfg

http://www2.jpl.nasa.gov/snc/

http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lpi/meteorites/mars_meteorite.html

http://www.imca.cc/mars/martian-meteorites.htm

annnnd, meteorites from Mercury:

http://www.npr.org/2013/04/11/176714430/origin-of-meteorite-is-a-puzzle-to-scientists

http://www.space.com/20426-mercury-meteorite-discovery-messenger.html

http://www.space.com/20547-mercury-meteorite-mystery-age.html

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/Rock-said-to-be-from-Mercury-at-Peabody-5008188.php

[onyx]

Thank you so much, SunkenCiv.
I knew about the probes that have brought back samples from Mars, but not in such detail.
You’re the very best!
In fact, YOU ROCK!

[SunkenCiv]

[snip] Features in a Martian meteorite believed by some to be the fossilised remains of alien bacteria may have formed underwater, scientists claim. [/snip]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3034165.stm

[snip] A carbon-rich substance found filling tiny cracks within a Martian meteorite could boost the idea that life once existed on the Red Planet. [/snip]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4688938.stm

[snip] New Mars rock hints at past water. [/snip]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/3414143.stm

[snip] A chemical study of Martian meteorites implies that the planet has always been cold and was rarely above freezing. [/snip]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/4703055.stm

[SunkenCiv]

Hey, wow, thanks onyx!

[jmacusa]

On his Facebook page a good buddy of mine lists his old alma mater as “Mars University/Earth Campus’’. The school fight song is “Surrender Earthlings’’. I’ll have to ask him if this is really a chunk of The Red Planet.