The shooting down of three unidentified flying objects by the United States has once again raised questions about whether there is life on other planets. The answer to this unknown of universal history could be in the Tissint meteorite that fell in a Moroccan desert in 2011.
This celestial body is named after the North African city where it was found and was expelled from Mars 700,000 years ago. It is one of five rocks from that planet observed as they fell to Earth.
The results of the studies carried out on the meteorite were published in the journal Science Advances, in which Philippe Schmitt Kopplinscientist of the Technical University of Munich and from the center Helmhotz Zentrum Munich, GermanyHe talked about the discoveries.
“Mars and Earth share many aspects of their evolution,” said the specialist. He added: “Although life arose and prospered on our planet, the question of whether it ever existed on Tuesday it’s a research topic very hot”.
The importance of the Tissint meteorite
Based on what has been observed so far, the piece of rock contains previously unpublished organic compounds that could provide information about life on Mars since it originated there.
This meteorite contains, among its organic components, carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur which, in general, are associated with life forms. However, some research suggests that these rocks may be created by non-biological processes, known as abiotic organic chemistry.
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Tissint It has the particularity of being the most complete of those that arrived from MarsThat is why the researchers put together a catalog of the organic compounds found in it and agreed a link between the diversity of organic molecules and their type with the specific mineralogy of a meteorite.
In the rock the main compound was magnesium in organic form, something that have not been seen before in samples from Mars, so they deduce that it could be useful to understand the geochemistry of high pressure and high temperature that shaped the deep interior of Mars.
According to the publication, the abundance of this type of organic magnesium compound could also point to a connection between the carbon cycle on the red planet and the evolution of its minerals.
In the future, the assessment of the samples taken from Tuesday to the Land for various missions, including the Sample return from Mars of the POT and THATwill be key for the research.
JP/MCP
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