Radiography of the first meteorite of Martian crust - The Mundo.es

Morocco Bedouin found it somewhere in the Sahara Desert said no. This is a fragment of the first Martian meteorite that scientists who have studied it, comes from the bark of the Red Planet. The full analysis of this piece of rock, classified as NWA 7533, described this week in the journal Nature .

explains to THE WORLD Munir Humayun, a researcher at the University of Florida and lead author of the study, in the Sahara found about 7,000 remains of these celestial rocks that scientists generally called meteorites northwest Africa .

described in this study is part of a set of five fragments that researchers believe they belong to the same meteorite: “The first rock of this group was purchased in 2011. NWA 7533 was purchased by a dealer [Luc Labenne ] in Agadir in 2012 “details.

Less common is coming from Mars though, as said earlier, it is not far from the first meteorite found on Earth supposedly from the Red Planet: “The number of known Martian meteorites ranges from 60 100 depending on how many fragments have matched. For example, when a meteor enters the atmosphere, breaking and debris are scattered over a wide area. sometimes found in different places and years apart, so they are described as if they were different meteorites “explains Humayun, who for the past 25 years has investigated a variety of these space rocks.

The collection of a meteorite hunter

“I bought the stone in May 2012, after receiving a photo of a trusted contact in Morocco . Through the image looked like a meteorite very recent so I quickly agreed to pay the price I proposed” , email tells the owner, Luc Labenne, who prefers not to reveal the exact amount you paid although the estimated present value makes you think that it has acquired “The price a secret but now I can say that it would be worth 10,000 to $ 8,000 a gram, so that the meteorite is more expensive but also more valuable to science have been found, “says the owner, who defines himself as a meteorite hunter rocks found in many parts of the world, including lunar and Martian meteorites.

This operating

is the usual Labenne, which for two decades acquires rocks for him and for your customers and sells through a website: “Every month I buy several different suppliers rocks Morocco, people meteorites local search either previously purchased the nomads. lucky I was able to buy NWA 7533. Di fantastic sample the researchers who have shared the thrill of discovery with me, “he adds.

Munir Humayun

scientist recalls that two-thirds of the earth’s surface is covered by oceans, so it is not possible to recover much of the remains of meteorites from space that will surely impact the Earth: “The number of Martian meteorites that reaches far exceeds those found, but do not know how small the percentage that are collected. the third of the earth’s surface that is not occupied by water and ice deserts of Antarctica are places the biggest found so far. Based on the recovery rates of these regions, we believe that there must be at least ten times more meteors that have come to our planet but have not been discovered. “

The composition of the rock

According to the researchers propose, NWA 7533 is a breakthrough regolítica that contains fragments of the mineral zircon (zirconium silicate) that probably originated in the consolidation that took place in the primary cortex planet. zircon, say, have an age of 4.428 million years: “This is the age of the minerals in the rock ., however, might not be the age of the meteorite,” says Humayun. “When a meteorite is an igneous rock is a specific moment in time that defines its age: when cast goes from being cold, a cooling process that lasts a few hours. NWA 7533 is a gap, which means say it is a mixture of different fragments from many rocks that have been pulverized due to impact and have subsequently been compacted. We made an estimate of the time when compacted: must have a more than antiques 1,700 million years, “he adds.

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LUC labenne

left, the entire fragment. To the right of the rock cut.

Humayun

team believes that the rock came from the southwestern highlands of Mars, an area in which there are many craters and they believe that there may be important clues to investigate the changes that occurred in the cortex of planet during its early history 100 million.

But how do you know that come from Mars? . “The composition of pyroxenes [a group of silicate rocks containing many ígenas] NWA’s in 7533 match pyroxenes from Martian meteorites. Much of its composition is very similar to Gusev crater rocks he found the rover Spirit (one NASA rover that explored Mars. No other meteorite as having a composition similar to rocks collected by the rovers “, explains the researcher. Moreover, he adds,” the isotopic composition of the noble gases, hydrogen and nitrogen largely coincide with those of the Martian atmosphere. “