A small chunk of rock that once broke away from Mars may hold clues about the red planet's formation.
The way in which Mars obtained its volatile gasses, such as carbon, oxygen, hydrogen, nitrogen, and noble gasses, is contrary to our current models.
Current models show that planets are formed from leftover star stuff. It grows from the cloud around it.
The material forms a disk and begins to clump together. Evidence in our own Solar System shows it formed the same way as other baby planetary systems.
It has been difficult to piece together how elements ended up in the planets.
Current models show that volatile gasses are taken up by a molten planet. The volatiles are slurped into the global magma ocean that is the forming planet because the planet is so hot and squishy.
When meteorites break apart on datememe datememe, volatiles bound up in carbonaceous meteorites are released.
The composition of the solar nebula should be reflected in the interior of the planet, while meteorites should be reflected in the atmosphere.
We can tell the difference by looking at the ratios of noble gasses.
It's a good record for the very early stages of planetary formation because Mars formed and solidified relatively quickly.
Sandrine Péron, who used to work at the University of California Davis, said that they can reconstruct the history of volatile delivery in the first million years of the solar system.
The meteorite is a gift from space if we can get the information we need.
It's noble gas composition is different from that of the Martian atmosphere, which suggests that the chunk of rock broke away from the mantle and flew into space.
The precise ratios have been difficult to measure. Péron and her colleague, Sujoy Mukhopadhyay of UC Davis, used a new method to measure the amount of krypton in the meteorite.
This is where it got very strange. The ratio of krypton in the meteorite is close to that ofchondrites. It was very close.
Péron said that the atmosphere on Mars is solar and that the interior composition is chondritic. It's very different.
It's possible that meteorites were delivering volatiles to Mars before the solar nebula dissipated.
The team observed that the chondritic gasses and the nebular gasses were very different than what they were.
Another mystery is presented by this. The remnants of the nebula should have burned away the atmosphere of Mars. The team suggested that the atmospheric krypton could have been preserved in the polar ice caps.
In order for that to happen, Mars would need to be cold in the immediate aftermath of its accretion.
The study points to the chondritic gasses in the Martian interior, but it also raises some interesting questions about the origin and composition of Mars' early atmosphere.
The research has been published.
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