14 Month Old Meteorite Reveals Martian Secrets

Launched off its planet Mars by the impact of an asteroid, the 14 months old meteorite provides crucial details about Mars.  Landed in the Moroccon desert the meteorite 'Tissint' is being studied by the researcher Chris Herd at the University of Alberta.

The researchers predict that this lump of rock floated through the outer space for a period between 700000 and one million years. It was in July 2011 that it splashed through the Earth's atmosphere and landed in Morocco.

"Our team matched traces of gases found inside the Tissint meteorite with samples of Mars' atmosphere collected in 1976 by Viking, NASA's Mars lander mission," said Herd.

According to Heard, the meteorite started out some 600 million years ago in the form of a volcanic rock on the surface of Mars.

"At the instant of that impact with Mars, a shock wave shot through the rock," said Herd. "Cracks and fissures within the rock were sealed instantly by the heat, trapping components of Mars' atmosphere inside, and forming black, glassy spots."

According to Herd, this is the fifth time that a Martian meteorite landing was witnessed.

What makes this meteorite is so important is that it was picked up just a few months after landing. As a result of which it was not subjected to weathering or contamination on this planet.

"Most other samples were collected long after their arrival on Earth and thus have experienced variable degrees of terrestrial weathering," Lead author Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane, a geochemist at Hassan II University of Casablanca was quoted in LA Times. "Even the few Martian meteorites that were collected shortly after their observed fall to Earth have been exposed to organic and other potential contaminants during storage."

The rock's Martian weathering involved water indicating the presence of water on the surface of Mars within the past few hundred million years. Whereas this meteorite sample does not carry any evidence that the water supported any life form.

"Because the Martian rock was subjected to such intense heat, any water-borne microbial life forms that may have existed deep within cracks of the rock would have been destroyed," said Herd.

The researchers are trying to get more intricate details on the history of Mars with the help of NASAs current Mars Rover.

The research paper published online Oct 11 in the journal Science.