(MENAFN- AzerNews)
By Alimat Aliyeva
Australian and European planetary scientists have found grains
of minerals in the famous Martian meteorite "Black Beauty" that
originated on Mars about 4.45 billion years ago, as a result of the
contact between hot rocks and very hot liquid water,
Azernews reports.
"Colleagues now believe that hydrothermal systems were a key
ingredient for the emergence of life on Earth. The discovery of
their analogues on Mars indicates that, at the very early stages of
the formation of its crust, hot liquid water was present on the
surface of Mars, which was necessary for the evolution and
maintenance of life," said Aaron Kavosi, senior researcher at
Curtin University, whose words are quoted by the university's press
service.
Scientists made this discovery while studying fragments of the
meteorite "Black Beauty," which was discovered in the Moroccan part
of the Sahara Desert in 2011. Subsequently, it fell into the hands
of American collectors of "heavenly stones," who later transferred
the find to planetary scientists, who assigned it the name NWA
7034.
Recently, scientists studied several fragments of "Black Beauty"
and concluded that the meteorite is a fragment of the primary
Martian crust, ejected from the surface of the planet about 5-10
million years ago. During their study of the meteorite's formation
history, Australian researchers found several unusual deformed
grains of zircons inside it-crystals of refractory rocks that form
when they "ascend" to the surface of a planet.
When scientists tried to uncover the history of these crystals'
formation, they found evidence that these zircons contained
inclusions of iron, aluminum, sodium, and some other elements not
typically found in such refractory mineral grains. Subsequent study
of their structure and location indicated that these inclusions
were the result of the zircons' contact with very hot water.
The temperature of this water, according to scientists'
calculations, was about 500-800 degrees Celsius, suggesting the
existence of hydrothermal vents on ancient Mars. These vents are
believed to have been the main "factories" for the simplest organic
molecules on ancient Earth. Their presence on Mars implies that, in
the distant past, suitable conditions existed on the fourth planet
of the Solar System for the origin of life, the scientists
concluded.
Over the past two decades, planetary scientists have discovered
a wealth of evidence that rivers, lakes, and entire oceans of fresh
water existed on the surface of Mars in ancient times. According to
current estimates, they contained about the same amount of water as
the terrestrial Arctic Ocean. However, scientists cannot yet say
for sure where this water went or when it appeared on the surface
of the fourth planet in the Solar System.
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