The crust that encases rocky planets and makes possible the emergence of life took shape on Mars earlier than thought and at least 100 million years sooner than on Earth, researchers said on Wednesday.
Analyzing grains of the mineral zircon extracted from a Martian meteorite known as “Black Beauty,” they determined that Mars’ outer layer hardened 4.547 billion years ago, only 20 million years after the birth of the sun.
“Mars’ primary crust formation — which is the end product of planet formation — happened much faster than previously thought,” said Martin Bizzarro, a scientist at Denmark’s Centre for Star and Planet Formation and senior author of a study published in Nature. “Our results indicate that Mars could have had an environment with oceans, and potentially life, much earlier than Earth.”
Water is considered to be an essential precursor for life, at least as we know it.
Mars was once much more Earth-like, with a thick atmosphere, abundant water and global oceans.
Up to now, mathematical models have suggested that the solidification of Mars took up to 100 million years.
The new study tackles the question by examining a chunk of Mars that streaked into the Saharan Desert and was discovered in 2011.
The meteorite weighed 320g when found. The researchers secured 44g of the precious space rock and crushed 5g — enough to extract seven bits of zircon that could be used in experiments.
By measuring the lead decaying from uranium that had been trapped in zircon as the young Mars’ molten magma hardened, the scientists were able to precisely date the crust from which the zircon formed.
“I’m glad we chose that strategy,” Bizzarro said. “Zircon is like a time capsule.”
There are two main models for the formation of planets.
In one, it occurs in stages, with small dust particles coalescing into “planetesimals” — rock fragments 10km to 100km in diameter — that collide to form planetary embryos, and then planets, over a time scale of 50 to 100 million years.
According to a more recent model, planetary growth unfolds more quickly and is fueled by so-called “pebble accretion,” the layered accumulation of particles measured in centimeters and meters that are loosely bound with gases.
“Our data supports newer models indicating the very rapid formation of terrestrial planets,” the authors said.
The new time line suggests that something similar might have happened on our planet, but only after Earth was “reset” by the giant impact that formed the moon about 4.4 billion years ago, Bizzarro said.
Mars is thought to have a dense metallic core with a radius of about 1,800km, consisting primarily of iron, nickel and sulfur.
The core is surrounded by a largely dormant mantle — about 1,500km thick — made mainly of silicon, oxygen, iron and magnesium.
Finally, the crust averages about 50km in depth, with a maximum of about 125km.
Earth’s crust averages 40km, but is one-third the thickness of the Martian crust once planet size is taken into account.
MONEY GRAB: People were rushing to collect bills scattered on the ground after the plane transporting money crashed, which an official said hindered rescue efforts A cargo plane carrying money on Friday crashed near Bolivia’s capital, damaging about a dozen vehicles on highway, scattering bills on the ground and leaving at least 15 people dead and others injured, an official said. Bolivian Minister of Defense Marcelo Salinas said the Hercules C-130 plane was transporting newly printed Bolivian currency when it “landed and veered off the runway” at an airport in El Alto, a city adjacent to La Paz, before ending up in a nearby field. Firefighters managed to put out the flames that engulfed the aircraft. Fire chief Pavel Tovar said at least 15 people died, but
LIKE FATHER, LIKE DAUGHTER: By showing Ju-ae’s ability to handle a weapon, the photos ‘suggest she is indeed receiving training as a successor,’ an academic said North Korea on Saturday released a rare image of leader Kim Jong-un’s teenage daughter firing a rifle at a shooting range, adding to speculation that she is being groomed as his successor. Kim’s daughter, Ju-ae, has long been seen as the next in line to rule the secretive, nuclear-armed state, and took part in a string of recent high-profile outings, including last week’s military parade marking the closing stages of North Korea’s key party congress. Pyongyang’s official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) released a photo of Ju-ae shooting a rifle at an outdoor shooting range, peering through a rifle scope
South Korea would soon no longer be one of the few countries where Google Maps does not work properly, after its security-conscious government reversed a two-decade stance to approve the export of high-precision map data to overseas servers. The approval was made “on the condition that strict security requirements are met,” the South Korean Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport said. Those conditions include blurring military and other sensitive security-related facilities, as well as restricting longitude and latitude coordinates for South Korean territory on products such as Google Maps and Google Earth, it said. The decision is expected to hurt Naver and Kakao
India and Canada yesterday reached a string of agreements, including on critical mineral cooperation and a “landmark” uranium supply deal for nuclear power, the countries’ leaders said in New Delhi. The pacts, which also covered technology and promoting the use of renewable energy, were announced after Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney hailed a fresh start in the relationship between their nations. “Our ties have seen a new energy, mutual trust and positivity,” Modi said. Carney’s visit is a key step forward in ties that effectively collapsed in 2023 after Ottawa accused New Delhi
RSS