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Mars meteorite 1st look at Red Planet's ancient crust
Fox News ^ | November 21, 2013 | Mike Wall, Space.com

Posted on 11/24/2013 1:44:01 PM PST by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; mars; nwa7533
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To: SunkenCiv
the Red Planet's crust

Now that you mention pizza, Red Planet would not be a bad name for a specialty pizza. Lots of pepperonis and red sauce.

21 posted on 11/24/2013 6:05:28 PM PST by MUDDOG
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To: SunkenCiv

Thanks, SunkenCiv.
I always learn something from your threads!


22 posted on 11/24/2013 6:11:28 PM PST by Thumper1960 (A modern so-called "Conservative" is a shadow of a wisp of a vertebrate human being.)
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To: MUDDOG

The pepperoni would look like the craters, it’d be cool, great idea. Of course, deliver would take 250 days...


23 posted on 11/26/2013 5:18:04 PM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: Thumper1960

Thanks T for the kind remarks!


24 posted on 11/26/2013 5:18:30 PM PST by SunkenCiv (http://www.freerepublic.com/~mestamachine/)
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To: MUDDOG
Humayun and his team were able to calculate a thickness for the Red Planet's crust

This is a darn'd clever bunch!

I'm sure there weren't too many wild assumptions involved in this calculation.

25 posted on 11/26/2013 5:26:39 PM PST by Rocky (The further a society drifts from the truth, the more it will hate those who speak it. George Orwell)
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To: Rocky

Thus things proceed in their circle; and thus the empire is maintained.


26 posted on 11/26/2013 6:16:12 PM PST by MUDDOG
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