In the 1980s, scientists discovered a kind of fingerprint of the Martian atmosphere inside meteorites discovered on Earth.
200 Meteorites Coming Directly From The Red Planet
Earth will certainly have more connections to the Red Planet than first appears. Indeed, researchers have discovered, in a study published in the scientific journal Science advances On August 16, 2024, approximately “200 meteorites“It will come from around”10 Impact Events on Mars”
In other words, this means that debris from Mars has already managed to reach Earth.After powerful collisions hit the surface of the red planet and pushed it into space“, details Space.com website.
When large enough collisions occur, debris can be thrown far enough and fast enough to free itself from Mars’ gravity, the media explains. Some of this debris then ends up entering orbit around the sun and some ends up falling back to Earth. These are the same meteorites that the researchers studied.
Modeling the ejection process of rocks
“We can now group these meteorites based on their common history and then their location on the surface before they reached Earth.“It is a very interesting discovery,” said Chris Herd, curator of the university’s meteorite collection and professor in the Faculty of Science at A. Press release published by the University of Albertapublished on August 19, 2024.
Indeed, the researcher explains that he and his colleagues were able to model the ejaculation process, which later allowed them to determine “Drilling size or range“Which could have thrown up this particular type of meteorite. Information Chris Herd called “The missing link”
As mentioned Space.com websiteResearchers have used one technique in particular to pinpoint the origin of meteorites on Mars: spectral matching. It involves determining the composition of materials and then comparing them, by analyzing the patterns of light they absorb or emit. However, two factors limit the reliability of this method:
- terrain variability
- Dust coverage range.
These factors can contribute to distortion of the spectral signals. However, the researchers believe they have successfully identified two specific volcanic regions, Tharsis and Elysium. They have been equipped with five impact craters, which are consistent with their analyses of the rocks.
A breakthrough in the chronology of Mars events
However, through the modeling process, in which the team combined high-resolution simulations of impacts to determine data such as maximum impact stresses and impact properties, Heard and his colleagues were able to ““Estimating the size of impact craters that may have ejected meteorites, as well as the depth to which rocks were buried before impact.”
” This allows us to say that out of all these possible craters, we can narrow it down to 15, and then from those 15 craters, we can narrow it down even further based on the specific characteristics of the meteorites.
As the specialized media points out, this could help scientists understand and determine the location of how and when volcanic eruptions occurred on Mars, the different sources of Martian magma, and how craters were formed.It’s really amazing when you think about it.“I have nothing to envy these analyses on a trip to Mars,” declared Heard, who has nothing to envy about them.
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