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FP TrendsApril 30, 2020 5:57:37 PM IST
Researchers have identified four billion-year-old organic nitrogen-containing molecules in a Martian meteorite.
According to a study published in the magazine Nature’s CommunicationsOrganic molecules were found in the famous Martian meteorite Allan Hills 84001, which was discovered in Antarctica in 1984.
According to the researchers, organic materials were either synthesized locally on Mars or delivered meteorically to the surface of the red planet during the Noachian age.
The study paper says that the presence of the nitrogen-containing compounds suggests that Mars previously had a less oxidizing environment.
The meteorite is made up of orange-colored carbonate minerals that have been preserved for about four billion years.
In a conversation with NewsweekAtsuko Kobayashi, author of the study from the Tokyo Institute of Technology and the California Institute of Technology, said “the rock is at the center of the debate about life on Mars.”
According to the report, the meteorite is made up of orange carbonate minerals that have been conserved for about four billion years. The researchers detected nitrogen in the carbonate mineral compounds, likely formed as a result of near-surface salt and liquid groundwater.
The study authors say nitrogen detection suggests that early Mars had a less oxygen-rich environment than it does today.
Researchers say this rock is at the center of the “life on Mars” debate. Image Credit: Nature’s Communications
According to a report in Technological explorerAtsuko Kobayashi added that chemical reactions on early Mars may have produced the organic compounds with N at the site.
Either way, they say, these findings show that there was organic nitrogen on Mars before it became the red planet we know today; the earliest Mars may have been more ‘Earth-like’, less oxidizing, wetter, and richer. in organic matter. Maybe it was ‘blue’ “, revealed the scientist.
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