The Red planet was still getting bombarded after 4.48 billion years.
It is believed to be the second oldest meteorite discovered, about two billion years old, and contains the most water found in any of Mars’ fallen rocks.
Previous studies of Black Beauty have shown that the meteorite lacked signatures of shock deformation, which led scientists to believe that Mars stopped experiencing heavy bombardment from flying space rocks about 4.48 billion years ago. This also suggested that the planet could have developed habitable conditions early on in its history.
The team behind the new study probed NWA 7,034, analyzing a total of 66 zircon grains. Zircon is a rare mineral found on Mars that scientists refer to as a time capsule since it preserves information about its environment from the day it was created.
Comments are closed.