Martian meteorites hold clues to Earth's origins
It is impossible to know the geological history of the formation of our planet, because it has been destroyed by tectonic movements and the subsequent evolution of the earth’s surface. Or maybe not completely impossible… There are very rare clues to this process that may be gleaned from pieces of other planets that have arrived at Earth’s surface in the form of meteorites. In particular, Mars can provide an indication of our planet’s early evolutionary path. More than 4.5 billion years ago, Mars probably had a crust similar to that found on early Earth, and information about this crust may be hiding in the oldest Martian meteorites currently known to have landed on Earth. But first, scientists must identify exactly where the 4.48 billion-year-old meteorite, dubbed Black Beauty, came from on the surface of Mars. Studies published in Nature Communication details the methods the international team used to identify that this piece of Martian rock came from one of the oldest regions on