(ORDO NEWS) — The study of a Martian meteorite has forced scientists to reconsider the theory of planet formation. An article about this was published in the journal Science.
According to mainstream scientific theories, planets obtain volatile elements such as hydrogen, carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, and noble gases from the nebula around a young star.
Since the planet is now a ball of molten rock, these elements are first dissolved in an ocean of magma and then emitted back into the atmosphere.
Some time later, chondrite meteorites crashing into the young planet deliver even more volatile elements. Thus, the hypothesis was formed that the volatile elements of the crust should come exclusively from the nebula, and the atmosphere from the nebula and meteorites.
Sandrine Peron of the University of California at Davis and colleagues studied the Chassigny meteorite that fell in northeastern France in 1815. It comes from Mars, and therefore carries information about its elemental composition.
The researchers calculated the balance of krypton isotopes, analyzing which you can find out where the substance comes from. To the scientists’ surprise, the krypton isotopes in the meteorite correspond to isotopes of chondrite meteorites, not stellar nebulae.
This means that meteorites are starting to deliver material to the planet earlier than thought. “Mars’ interior material is almost entirely chondrite, and atmospheric gases originate from the nebula,” the scientists say.
The results show that the atmosphere of Mars could not have formed solely as a result of the release of gas from the mantle, since this would give it a chondrite composition.
The planet must have acquired an atmosphere from the nebula after the magma ocean cooled to prevent internal chondrite gases from mixing with atmospheric gases from the nebula.
Scientists conclude that the growth of Mars was completed before the nebula around the Sun dissipated under the influence of solar radiation.
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