Martian meteorite3/27/2023 4 (Xinhua) - Martian meteorites, seen as gifts from Mars and also a way to study the red planet, have attracted increasing interest from Chinese scientists in the past decades. We’d love to hear from you! If you have a comment about this article or if you have a tip for a future Freethink story, please email us at. ![]() In the coming decade, NASA and ESA plan to launch the Mars Sample Return mission, which will deliver Martian rocks collected by rovers directly back to us on Earth. Ultimately, the team’s atlas will provide a valuable resource for astronomers as they explore Mars’ geological past, and the parallels which could be drawn with the evolution of life on Earth. In the future, astronomers won’t have to rely solely on elusive Martian meteorites to study samples. But they showcase a remarkable diversity of complex chemical reactions that once took place on our planetary neighbour. The team’s atlas will provide a valuable resource for astronomers as they explore Mars’ geological past.įetching samples: The compounds found in the Tissint meteorite don’t necessarily allude to the past presence of life on Mars organic compounds can and often do form through inorganic, geological processes, as well. Either way, the result hints at the close ties which could have formed between the complex organic compounds and magnesium-carrying minerals inside Martian rocks. Such conditions could have been triggered by geological processes in Mars’ mantle or crust, or during high-energy asteroid impacts, like the one that may have ejected the rock into space. The molecules they found included carboxylic acids, aldehydes, olefins, and polyaromatics – but perhaps their most interesting findings were over 1,000 molecules containing magnesium, which likely formed at extreme temperatures and pressures. Through their analysis, Schmitt-Kopplin and his colleagues built up an atlas of over 20,000 organic compounds in the meteorite, many of which have never before been found in Martian rocks. They then examined its molecular makeup using a variety of cutting-edge approaches to mass spectrometry and NMR spectroscopy, as well as electron and x-ray microscopy. In their study, the team first crushed a small sample of the Tissint meteorite into a fine powder, and dissolved it in a methanol-based solvent. ![]() They examined the Martian meteorite’s molecular makeup using a variety of cutting-edge approaches.Ī molecular atlas: Through a new study published in Science Advances, an international team led by Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin at the Technical University of Munich have examined the Tissint meteorite in the most extensive level of detail to date. Initial analysis of the Tissint meteorite revealed that it likely crystallised over 650 million years ago, and it contains a diverse array of organic compounds. Since Mars shares some similar geological history with Earth, studying these molecules on Mars is not only valuable in the search for extraterrestrial life, they could also offer vital insights into how life first emerged on our own planet.įollowing the impact, researchers were able to recover 17 kg of meteorite fragments from the desert, providing astronomers with a vital source of fresh, largely contaminant-free material. Samples of the Red Planet have come to us in the form of meteorites.Īlong with a history of liquid water, evidence supporting this possibility can be found in carbon-based organic molecules, which are widely seen as basic prerequisites for a planet to evolve life (although such molecules can form without life, too). Many astronomers believe that life may once have thrived on the Martian surface in the distant past, and that microbial remnants of these ancient ecosystems could still be holding on beneath its surface. Life on Mars? The possibility of life on our planetary neighbour has captivated us for centuries, and is still one of the most actively-explored branches of planetary astronomy. Their results offer new insights into the planet’s geological past. ![]() The results showcase the diverse and complex geochemistry that has played out both on and beneath Mars’ surface. Researchers have carried out the most detailed analysis yet of a Martian meteorite that landed in Morocco in 2011, documenting over 20,000 organic molecules in the sample.
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