Matías S. Zavia
WriterAerospace and energy industries journalist. LinkedIn
A group of Saharawi discovered a black meteorite that fell from the sky in the Sahara Desert. After being sold to the highest bidder, it’s long been known that this meteorite originated from the crust of Mars. However, it’s taken scientists more than 10 years to uncover one of its best-kept secrets.
A meteorite named “Black Beauty.” The meteorite, officially named Northwest Africa 7034, weighs 320 grams. It was found in 2011 in the Western Sahara desert and later sold to an American collector in Morocco.
Its composition is unique among known Martian meteorites. It contains both very old and relatively young minerals. This composition matches observations made by NASA rovers on the surface of Mars, indicating that it was part of the Martian crust when it detached from the Red Planet.
A time capsule. A recent study focuses on a zircon grain found within the meteorite. This zircon is around 4.45 billion years old, placing it in the earliest stages of Martian history.
Most meteorites known to come from Mars are from later geological periods. As such, Black Beauty provides invaluable information about the Red Planet’s surface environment long before it became what it is today.
The Mars meteorite with the highest water content. Black Beauty is also exceptional because it contains 10 times more water than other Martian meteorites. Initially, this was attributed to the rock’s interaction with water present in the planet’s crust at the time of its formation. However, recent analyses of the zircon using modern microscopy techniques have revealed even more information.
The meteorite contains iron, aluminum, and sodium–elements that are unusual for zircon of purely magmatic origin. More significantly, the presence of tiny inclusions of magnetite (iron oxide) suggests that it crystallized under hydrothermal conditions. This means it formed in the presence of water at elevated temperatures and in an oxidizing environment.
Ancient thermal water. Magnetite is trapped in areas of the zircon that haven’t been altered by radiation. According to researchers, this finding implies that the magnetite formed simultaneously with the zircon rather than being a result of later secondary processes.
The study concludes that hydrothermal conditions existed in the Martian crust 4.45 billion years ago, during the pre-Noachian period. The Black Beauty meteorite serves as direct evidence that Mars had water during its formative years.
Conditions conducive to life. The recent discovery supports the hypothesis that Mars had, from a very early stage, the necessary conditions to support life or at least some environments suitable for microbial life.
While there’s still no evidence to confirm whether life existed on Mars or if it arrived on Earth via meteorite, the findings from the 2011 meteorite have provided valuable information that highlights the importance of the Martian samples that NASA and China plan to bring back in the coming years.
Image | NASA
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