Tissint, a Martian meteorite that plummeted to Earth and crash-landed in Morocco over 11 years ago, is one of only five such meteorites that have been observed during their descent to our planet.
An international team of researchers, led by Philippe Schmitt-Kopplin from the Technical University of Munich and Helmholtz Munich and including Andrew Steele from Carnegie, has discovered a vast diversity of organic compounds in the Martian meteorite Tissint. Their findings have recently been published in the journal Science Advances.
Tissint, a Martian meteorite that impacted Earth over 11 years ago and crash-landed in Morocco, is one of only five such meteorites that have been observed while falling to our planet. Fragments of it were located scattered in the desert, about 30 miles from the town for which it is named.
This sample of Martian rock was formed hundreds of millions of years ago on our next-door planetary neighbor and was launched into space by a violent event. Unraveling the origin stories of the Tissint meteorite’s organic compounds can help scientists understand whether the Red Planet ever hosted life, as well as Earth’s geologic history.
“Mars and Earth share many aspects of their evolution,” said lead author Schmitt-Kopplin. “And while life arose and thrived on our home planet, the question of whether it ever existed on Mars is a very hot research topic that requires deeper knowledge of our neighboring planet’s water, organic molecules, and reactive surfaces.”
Organic molecules contain carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and sometimes other elements. Organic compounds are commonly associated with life, although previous Martian meteorite research demonstrated that they can be created by non-biological processes, referred to as abiotic organic chemistry.
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