Space Exploration News

1.3-Billion-Year-Old Martian Meteorite Had Limited Exposure to Water, Study Finds

A polished section of the Martian meteorite Miller Range (MIL) 03346: (A) photograph of the interior of MIL 03346,230; note the yellow tint in the left region of the sample, marked by dotted lines; mineral grains in the yellow-tinted region are heavily affected by aqueous alteration; (B) BSE image of the same section as in (A); light gray olivine grains, marked with arrows, are situated in the altered areas; the white boxes show locations for detailed images in (C) to (F); (C) BSE image of the upper left olivine grain, marked with a box in (B); iddingsite veins are cutting through a fractured olivine grain; augite grains and a fine-grained mesostasis (dark gray) containing titanomagnetite (bright, skeletal grains) are also shown in the figure; (D) photograph of the upper left olivine grain, same as in (C); iddingsite veins have a dark red color; (E) BSE image showing details of the upper right olivine grain; the grain is fractured and crosscut by iddingsite veins that are predominantly oriented east to west in the image; (F) photograph of the same grain as in (E), where the dark red iddingsite veins have been outlined. Image credit: Martell et al., doi: 10.1126/sciadv.abn3044.
May 13, 2022 by News Staff

Using neutron and X-ray tomography, a team of planetary researchers from Lund University and elsewhere examined a section of Miller Range (MIL) 03346, a nakhlite meteorite from Miller Range in Antarctica. A polished section of the Martian meteorite Miller Range (MIL) 03346: (A) photograph of the interior of MIL 03346,230; note the yellow tint in the left region of the sample, marked by dotted lines; mineral grains in the yellow-tinted region are heavily...

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