Scientists have revealed more details about the origins of the “Black Beauty” meteorite known as NWA 7034, as researchers used artificial intelligence to analyze thousands of high-resolution planetary images of the surface of Mars from a group of Mars missions, and found that this meteorite was ejected into space when it collided with an asteroid 6 miles wide. Mars surfaced 5-10 million years ago.
Weighing only 320 grams, the “Black Beauty” has created a new category of meteorites When it was discovered in 2011 in the Western Sahara, it contains the oldest Martian minerals ever dated, formed 4.48 billion years ago, according to the Daily Mail.
How did the scientists get the new data?
Using the size and spatial distribution of more than 90 million archaeological pits discovered using algorithm Crater discovery, scientists have identified the site of the most likely expulsion from Mars, and the authors found that the oldest fragments of NWA 7034 were excavated nearly 1.5 billion years ago from the impact of the shape of the 25-mile-wide “Khugert” crater located in the northeast of the large region of Mars called Terra Cimmeria-Sirenum, in the southern half of the planet.
The material ejected from this impact was then expelled from Mars by a second impact, which formed a smaller crater six miles wide, 5 to 10 million years ago, so it is believed that rocks ejected from the first impact remained on the surface of Mars until the second impact.
The usefulness of the new secrets revealed by the study
The research could help locate the expulsion of other Martian meteorites in order to create a comprehensive view of the red planet’s geological history, thus answering questions that help future investigations of the solar system to send humans to the moon by the end of the decade.
In 2013, NWA 7034 was dated to be 2.1 billion years old, but the new study by researchers at Australia’s Curtin University says that’s not accurate, and is in fact 4.48 billion years old.
It is reported that several meteorites were found in the Sahara desert by Bedouin tribesmen who knew the rocks could fetch a great price in the Casablanca market, and a portion of NWA 7034 was donated to the University of New Mexico by an American who bought it from a Moroccan meteorite dealer.