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‘Once in a career dis­cov­ery:’ Mars Rock Found on Earth

Thursday, January 3, 2013 21:34
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(Before It's News)

NWA 7034, nick­named “Black Beauty,” could shed light on the Red Planet’s past. (UNM)

A discovery of Martain meteorite on Earth is being called by researchers “a once in a lifetime discovery.”

The “Black Beauty” is nearly 320 grams in weight and was found in the Saharan desert in 2011. After intensive stdy, a team of researchers say the meteorite formed 2.1 billion years ago.

Furthermore, the rock contains more water than any other Martian meteorite.

This mete­orite is unlike any­thing I’ve ever seen before,” said Carl Agee, dierctor and curator at University of New Mexico’s Institute of Meteoritics, in a statement.  “It’s a com­pletely new type of Mar­t­ian mete­orite. It has every­thing in its com­po­si­tion that you’d want in order to fur­ther our under­stand­ing of the Red Planet. This unique Mar­t­ian mete­orite tells us what vol­can­ism was like 2 bil­lion years ago, but it also gives us a glimpse of ancient sur­face and envi­ron­men­tal con­di­tions on Mars that no other mete­orite has offered.”


 

The meteorite is believed to have come to earth via another planet.

Several other meteorites discovered previously are thought to possibly have come from Mars. But after study some are uncertain. Meanwhile, the “Black Beauty” is definitely from Mars, say the researchers.

For me per­son­ally, this is a once in a career dis­cov­ery. You try to do high qual­ity sci­ence, you do good work, per­se­vere, but once in a while, you just get lucky.” said Agee.

After the rock somehow became dislodged from Mars it took more than two billion years to come to Earth, but the researchers aren’t sure how that process happened.

Per­haps most excit­ing, is that the high water con­tent could mean there was an inter­ac­tion of the rocks with sur­face water either from vol­canic magma, or from flu­ids from impact­ing comets dur­ing that time,” said Andrew Steele of the Carnegie Institution. “It is the rich­est Mar­t­ian mete­orite geo­chem­i­cally and fur­ther analy­ses are bound to unleash more surprises.” 

The surface of Mars, and the place where NASA recently landed a exploration craft. (NASA)

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