A study of the Tissint meteorite, which sank in 2011 in Morocco, discovered a wide range of organic compounds hidden in the rock.
A study of a Martian meteorite which sank on Earth twelve years back determined it has a “huge diversity” of organic compounds, including one which was never seen before on Mars. The results might help scientists figure out more about the Red Planet’s habitability and if it previously contained life, they said.
The Tissint meteorite split apart in the skies above the town of Tissint in Morocco on July 18, 2011, showering fragments of the space rock throughout the surrounding desert. The meteorite, that developed hundreds of millions of years back on Mars, was most likely ejected by a cataclysmic event from our cosmic neighbour before it had been found in the gravitational field of Earth. It had been among just 5 Martian meteorites actually observed by people when it crashed into our world.
In a recent study, published Jan. 11 in the journal Science Advances(opens in new tab), scientists examined fragments of the meteorite and also discovered examples of more than 5 different kinds of organics substances.
“This is regarded as the thorough catalog ever created of the variety of organic compounds discovered in a Martian meteorite or a sample collected by a rover, and examined by a rover,” the authors write.
Natural elements are particles that have carbon atoms attached to atoms of one or more additional components, generally hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, and sulfur. These elements can be present in most life forms on Earth, therefore their existence in space rocks might suggest the presence of life somewhere else in the solar system. A few organic compounds could be created by non-biological processes, nevertheless, researchers don’t yet know if such elements are signs of life on other planets.
The researchers discovered which the Tissint meteorite had natural magnesium compounds which were “extremely abundant throughout the meteorite and haven’t been found previously in Martian samples.” The team thinks these elements had been created in the high-temperature and high-pressure conditions of Mars’ early mantle (the layer below Mars’ crust), which means they’re non-biological and may reveal clues about the way the Red Planet’s deep interior was formed.
Scientists also have found a number of other compounds inside the meteorite, such as aliphatic branched carboxylic acids which have identical structures to the amino acids which make up proteins. aldehydes – substances in which a carbon is double bonded, or has several electrons, with an oxygen atom; Hydrocarbons or olefins containing one or more carbon atoms which happen to be double bonded to one another; as well as polyaromatic complicated hydrocarbons which include a number of ring structures.
Natural substances have been discovered inside a Martian meteorite for a long time, but this’s the very first time. The Allan Hills 84001 meteorite or ALH 84001, that plummeted landing in 1984 in Antarctica, possessed a few organic elements. The finding has sparked years of controversy regarding if these compounds might have developed by ancient Martian life forms. However in July 2022, scientists discovered the elements in ALH 84001 were probably produced billions of years ago by fundamental geological reactions.
Not any of these natural compounds are apparent biomarkers for alien life, but they could teach scientists new details about our cosmic neighbor, like whether old geological conditions on Earth have favored life.
“Understanding the procedures and sequence of events that formed this rich natural bounty is going to uncover new details about Mars’ habitability and perhaps about the responses that can result in the development of life,” study co-author Andrew Steele(opens in new tab), an astrobiologist at the Carnegie Institution for Science in A mission and washington D.C. scientist with NASA’s Curiosity and Perseverance rovers, said in the statement.
Future missions to Mars will be required to enhance our knowledge of the Red Planet before we are able to state a lot more confidently whether life once flourished on Mars, the scientists said.
“The question of whether it [life] ever existed on Mars is an extremely popular research subject which requires much deeper knowledge of our neighboring planet’s water, organic molecules and reactive surfaces,” study lead author Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin, a biogeochemist at the Technical University of Munich in Germany, said in the statement.
