Scientists put Martian rock that hit Earth in nuclear reactor and solve a tricky puzzle

Sometimes, big rocks from space, called meteorites, hit our Earth. Some of these meteorites are actually parts of an old explosion that happened on our neighbouring planetMars.

Scientists wanted to know how old these Martian meteorites are. And now they have reportedly solved this puzzle using a special, research-oriented nuclear reactor.

They found out that most of these meteorites are not very old, only a few hundred million years. They think these rocks came from recent volcanic activity on Mars, especially from the biggest volcano in our whole solar system, called Olympus Mons.

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Argon-argon method

A scientist named Dr. Ben Cohen, along with a team from the University of Glasgow, the Natural History Museum, the University of Edinburgh, and some researchers in the US, worked very hard to figure out the exact age of these Martian meteorites. They used a special method called 'argon-argon' to measure the age.

"We know from certain chemical characteristics that these meteorites are definitely from Mars," explained Dr. Cohen.

Watch:NASA Mars sample return mission

They put small pieces of seven Martian meteorites into the nuclear reactor to check the argon levels. They also considered the argon the rocks might have picked up in space and made sure they didn't get mixed with Earth's air.

"Once we did that, the argon-argon ages came out as being young and matched perfectly with other methods, like Uranium-Lead," said Dr. Cohen.

How come the Martian rocks are so young?

But here's a bit of a puzzle: Mars is very old, like three to four billion years old. But these meteorites are much younger, only a few hundred million years old.

Dr. Cohen thinks that Mars gets hit by rocks often, and this creates a layer of crumbly rock on its surface. So, newer rocks keep coming up because of volcanoes. This means that with each new hit, older rocks are less likely to get sent into space.

This research helps us understand more about our solar system's history and is useful for missions to Mars, like the Perseverance rover, Curiosity rover, and ExoMars.

(With inputs from agencies)