[meteorite-list] Scientists say meteorite found in Morocco is 4.4 billion years old from Mars

From: Shawn Alan <shawnalan_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2015 11:03:23 -0700
Message-ID: <20150202110323.e8713c95af9984a493c5db01816d4c10.fe10ff3c28.wbe_at_email22.secureserver.net>

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Scientists say meteorite ?Black Beauty? found in Morocco is 4.4
billion years old from Mars





by Ben Kochmanon February 2, 2015




Scientists have concluded that the piece of meteorite found in the
desert of Morocco is 4.4 billion years old, and definitely came from
Mars. And dubbed NWA 7034 ? you know, NorthWest Africa ? or Black
Beauty ? because it is predominantly black and not red like normal
space rocks from Mars.
 
    

Mars, usually called the Red Planet because of its characteristic red
features will reveal some unusual aspect of itself through Black Beauty.
Almost all meteors that fell from Mars were designated as SNC ?
shergottites, nakhlites, or chassignites ? meteors, because they
largely consist of igneous rocks made up of cooled volcanic materials.

However, researchers at Brown University in Rhode Island and the
University of New Mexico who?ve conducted new spectroscopic
examinations of the rock say Black Beauty is breccias ? a
conglomeration of different types of rock that have been fused together
in a basaltic matrix. The components of the meteorite chemically match
rocks analyzed by NASA rovers on Mars, and this suggests that the stone
must have come from the dark crust that underlies Mar?s dusty reddish
surface.

And if this happens to be the case, then it might be the answer
scientists have been looking for in trying to explain why spectrographic
examination of SNC meteorites has never quite matched up with spectral
data of the Martian surface gathered from space.
 
    

Reporting their finding in the journal Icarus, ?Most samples from Mars
are somewhat similar to spacecraft measurements,? said Brown
researcher Jack Mustard, ?but annoyingly different.?

Using an imaging system developed by Massachusetts-based Headwall
Photonics to obtain detailed spectral imaging of the entire sample, lead
author Kevin Cannon said ?Other techniques give us measurements of a
dime-sized spot. What we wanted to do was get an average for the entire
sample. That overall measurement was what ended up matching the orbital
data.?

This actually means Black Beauty might belong to the Martian dark plains
where the red dust coating is thin and the rocks beneath it exposed.
Black Beauty might be a sample of the ?bulk background? rocks
believed to be hidden underneath the red dust of much of the Martian
surface.

?Mars is punctured by over 400,000 impact craters greater than 1 km in
diameter,? the researchers write. ?Because brecciation is a natural
consequence of impacts, it is expected that material similar to NWA 7034
has accumulated on Mars over time.?

That?s what you?d expect on a planetary surface that has been broken
apart and then reassembled by constant bombardment and cosmic impacts,
the scientists affirm.

?This is showing that if you went to Mars and picked up a chunk of
crust, you?d expect it to be heavily beat up, battered, broken apart
and put back together,? Cannon said.
Received on Mon 02 Feb 2015 01:03:23 PM PST