Science Focus
original post »Mars has been the focus of a flurry of findings lately. The Curiosity rover has been exploring the Gale Crater, where it detected methane jets and also sampled clays from the dry lakebed there, discovering clues about the history of water and hydrogen on the planet. That points to Mars’ water, and hydrogen in its atmosphere, slowly being lost over a longer period than previously thought. Meanwhile, the MAVEN spacecraft, orbiting Mars, has observed the process that causes that loss.
Between the rovers and the MAVEN spacecraft, it’s no surprise that so many new findings have come to light. But amidst these discoveries, researchers have made yet another stride in understanding the planet’s history—and they’ve done so in a laboratory right here on Earth.
The meteorite, known as Allan Hills 84001, is named for the location in Antarctica where it was discovered in the 1980s. It originated on Mars and, crucially for the enterprise of studying the planet’s history, it’s about 3.9 billion years old. That puts its formation in the planet's water-rich Noachian era, so the carbonates it contains provide clues about this key period in the planet's history.
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