Billions of years ago, the Solar System was experiencing a period in which many space bodies suffered various violent impacts by large asteroids, an event known as late intense bombardment.
According to previous studies, these impacts on the planet Mars would have concluded 4 years ago.48 millions of years, which would have allowed it to develop conditions to harbor life about 4 years ago.200 millions of years.
However, new research published Wednesday in the journal Science suggests that these bombardments ended millions of years later than previously thought.
“Mars continued to be subjected to impact bombardment after this time, on the scale known to cause mass extinctions on Earth“, explained one of The authors, Aaron Cavoise, Planetary Geologist and Geochemist at Curtin University (Australia).
“Zircon, a ore we describe provides evidence for such impacts, and highlights the possibility that the window of habitability may have occurred later than previously thought, perhaps coinciding with evidence of liquid water on Mars 3 years ago,900 to 3,414 million years“, he added.
A look at the “ Black Beauty”
The group of researchers analyzed the grains, minerals and formations of the meteorite called Northwest Africa 4032, also known as “Black Beauty”, a black space rock from the crust of Mars.
The Martian object, discovered in 2011 in the Sahara desert of Morocco, is a piece of volcanic rock of 320 grams composed of different types of minerals. The keys to the discovery are found in the deformations of the 40 analyzed zircon grains, which showed signs of having been impacted.
“High pressure shock deformation had not previously been found in any mineral from Black Beauty. This discovery of shock damage to a Martian zircon of 4,450 millions of years provides new evidence of the dynamical processes that affected the surface of early Mars,” he explained. study co-author Morgan Cox.
Comparison with impacts on Earth
According to According to the analyzes carried out by the researchers, the deformations of the grains caused by the impacts are very similar to those that were once recorded on Earth, such as, for example, in the Chicxulub crater, produced by the violent impact of an asteroid and which it is believed that it caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.
In conclusion, the scientists calculated that the possibilities that Mars had to harbor life were possible 25 millions of years later than previously thought, assuming the Martian surface needed to cool enough to create the conditions for life.
With information from DW.
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