The researcher found some evidence that a mineral in Martian Meteorites which had been considered as proof of an ancient dry environment on Mars. According to them, Mars may have been wetter place than previously thought.
In a study published in Nature Communication, Mars may have been originally a hydrogen-containing mineral that could indicate a more water-rich history for the Red Planet. Now scientists at the University of Nevada created a synthetic version of a hydrogen-containing mineral known as whitlockite. After experiment scientist noticed that whitlockite samples that simulated the conditions of ejecting meteorites from Mars.
Now scientist studied heir microscopic makeup with X-ray experiments at Berkeley Lab's Advanced Light Source (ALS) and at Argonne National Laboratory's Advanced Photon Source (APS) reported by News Wise. The X-ray experiments showed that whitlockite can become dehydrated from such shocks, forming merrillite, a mineral that is commonly found in Martian meteorites but does not occur naturally on Earth.
The pressures and temperatures generated in the shock experiments, while comparable to those of a meteorite impact, lasted for only about 100 billionths of a second, or about one-tenth to one-hundredth as long as an actual meteorite impact. Now when the researcher blasted the synthetic whitlockite samples with metal plates, they found that it fired at the rate of 1,678 miles per hour. The pressures of up to about 363,000 times greater than the air pressure in a basketball.
In November 2016 NASA scientist reported that a large underground body of water ice in one region of Mars contains the equivalent of all of the water in Lake Superior, the largest of the Great Lakes. The scientist Adcock and Tschauner are pursuing a round of studies using infrared light at the ALS to study actual Martian meteorite samples, and are also planning X-ray studies of these actual samples this year.
Scientist found many Martian meteorites on Earth, some of them came from the period of about 150 million to 586 million years ago. With thermal imaging analysis, when the experts analyzed the rock sample by rovers traversing they confirmed that this is the best evidence of Mars' water history. For detailed studies, the scientist would take Martian Rock from the planet and transport back to Earth.
