Water may have existed on Mars for longer than previously thought

Scientists have discovered the oldest evidence of flowing hot water on Earth’s neighbouring planet Mars, indicating that the planet may have supported life ages ago.

The said evidence was delivered to Earth and sealed within the Martian meteorite NWA7034, which was found in 2011 in the Sahara Desert. 

Due to its black, highly polished, and shiny appearance, the rock is also known as “Black Beauty”.

It is also the oldest Martian meteorite ever discovered, estimated at 2 billion years old. 

Interestingly, a team from Curtin University has found something even older than the rock itself: a 4.45 billion-year-old zircon grain that has fingerprints of liquids-rich in water, according to Space.com.

Aaron Cavosie from Curtin’s School of Earth and Planetary Sciences believes the new discovery will help us understand the hydrothermal systems associated with the volcanic magma activity that once ran through the Red Planet.

"We used nano-scale geochemistry to detect elemental evidence of hot water on Mars 4.45 billion years ago," Cavosie said in a statement.

"Hydrothermal systems were essential for the development of life on Earth, and our findings suggest Mars also had water, a key ingredient for habitable environments, during the earliest history of crust formation,” he added.

The researcher added that they identified specific elements in the unique zircon speck through nano-scale imaging and spectroscopy. The elements included iron and aluminium.

Cavosie added that the team identified specific elements in this unique zircon fragment through nano-scale imaging and spectroscopy, which allows the chemical composition of objects to be determined. These included the elements iron, aluminium, yttrium and sodium.

"These elements were added as the zircon formed 4.45 billion years ago, suggesting water was present during early Martian magmatic activity," Cavosie said.

Scientists believe that Mars lost its water billions of years ago when the planet was stripped of its atmosphere by harsh solar radiation.

The loss of it meant there was no force stopping the water vapours from escaping into space.

Regardless of the mentioned facts, this new research implies that water may have existed on Mars even earlier than it was previously thought to exist.

"A 2022 Curtin study of the same zircon grain found it had been 'shocked' by a meteorite impact, marking it as the first and only known shocked zircon from Mars," Cavosie said.

"This new study takes us a step further in understanding early Mars by identifying tell-tale signs of water-rich fluids from when the grain formed, providing geochemical markers of water in the oldest known Martian crust,” he added.