Mars Meteorite Much Younger Than Expected: New Technique to Date Age

Mars continues to reveal more details about its ancient past as we probe its surface for information. Yet scientists have long been puzzled about certain meteorites from Mars, which didn't seem to match up with theories. Now, researchers have discovered that these meteorites are almost four billion years younger than they believed, which tells them a little bit more about the Red Planet's evolution.

In order to learn a little bit more about the history of these Martian meteorites, the researchers took a look at a representative sample from the Royal Ontario Museum. In order to date the meteorite, the scientists combined two techniques: one old and one new. The established technique involved measuring radioactive uranium and lead isotopes in the sample. The recently developed method, in contrast, was a gently-destructive mineral grain-scale technique. This involved liberating atoms from the crystal surface of the meteorite by using a focused beam of oxygen ions.

So what did the scientists find? It turns out that not only were the meteorites much younger than anyone expected, but they also started as a 200 million-year-old lava flow on Mars. More specifically, the scientists found that the samples contained an ancient chemical signature indicating a hidden layer deep beneath the surface that's almost as old as the solar system.

What does this mean exactly? It's likely that the crystals on the meteorite grew when it was launched from Mars toward Earth. More than likely, it was ejected from a supervolcano at the Martian equator. This, in particular, shows a little bit more about the formation of the Red Planet in its distant past.

The findings aren't only relevant for Mars, though. The researchers are looking forward to using the two-pronged technique that they employed for further studies.

"Basically, the inner solar system is our oyster," said Desmond Moser, an Earth Sciences professor from Western's Faculty of Science, in a news release. "We have hundreds of meteorites that we can apply this technique to, including asteroids from beyond Mars to samples from the Moon."

The findings are published in the journal Nature.

Want to learn more about the findings? Check out the video below, courtesy of YouTube and Western University.