Mars may have hosted life form before earth

•  After analysing grains of the mineral zircon extracted from a Martian meteorite known as Black Beauty, scientists have found that Mars’ crust formation ”” which is the end product of planet formation ”” took place at least 100 million years earlier than on the earth.

• Up to now, mathematical models have suggested that the solidification of the Red Planet took up to 100 million years.

• The new study tackles the question by examining a chunk of Mars that streaked into the Saharan Desert and was discovered in 2011.
• The Black Beauty meteorite weighed 320 grams when found.

• The researchers secured 44 gm of the precious space rock Black Beauty and extracted seven bits of zircon that could be used in experiments.
• The data supports newer models indicating the very rapid formation of terrestrial planets.
• Scientists have found that the Red Planet’s outer layer hardened 4.547 billion years ago, only 20 million years after the birth of the Sun.
• The results indicate that Mars could have had an environment with oceans, and potentially life, much earlier than Earth.

• Water is considered to be an essential precursor for life, at least as we know it.

• Mars was once much more Earth-like, with a thick atmosphere, abundant water and global oceans.

The Hindu