A new study has revealed that a rare and scientifically valuable meteorite known as the Black Beauty contains far more hidden water than previously thought. The rock, which landed on Earth after being ejected from Mars, could unlock important secrets about the Red Planet’s ancient relationship with water. Researchers believe this discovery may have profound implications for understanding whether Mars was ever capable of supporting extraterrestrial life. The findings are generating excitement across the scientific community for what they might reveal about our neighboring planet’s distant past.
The meteorite in question is NWA 7034, popularly nicknamed Black Beauty, a piece of Mars weighing roughly 11 ounces that was blasted into space when a space rock slammed into the Red Planet. Nomads discovered it in 2011 in Morocco’s Sahara region, though the exact date of its arrival on Earth remains unknown. The specimen has since become famous for its dark coloring, which is particularly pronounced on one of its sides. Scientists have dated Black Beauty to at least 4.44 billion years old, making it the oldest Martian meteorite ever found on Earth. You can watch video here.
Researchers have known since 2013 that Black Beauty contains traces of water, but newer analyses have revealed evidence suggesting that water may have been partially heated at some point. This raises the intriguing possibility that Martian microbes could once have flourished in warm waters on the Red Planet’s surface. Until recently, scientists had to break off and destroy tiny fragments of the meteorite just to properly study the water trapped inside, which limited what they could learn from the sample. That limitation has now been overcome with a groundbreaking new imaging technique.
In a new study published on January 13 on the arXiv platform, researchers describe how a novel neutron scanning method allowed them to conduct the first in-depth analysis of the meteorite’s total water content without destroying any part of it. The examination found that water likely makes up around 0.6 percent of Black Beauty’s total mass, equivalent to a chip of rock roughly the size of a human fingernail. While that may not sound like much, it is significantly more than previous estimates had suggested. Most of that water is locked inside tiny fragments, or clasts, of hydrogen-rich iron oxyhydroxide (FeHO2), a compound similar to the main component of rust that forms when iron reacts with water under high pressure, such as during a meteor impact.
The team used a version of CT scanning, but instead of electromagnetic radiation, they bombarded the meteorite with neutrons, which proved especially effective at identifying hydrogen atoms embedded within the extremely dense sample. According to Universe Today, this approach gave scientists their clearest picture yet of the water distribution hidden inside Black Beauty. The technique is non-destructive, meaning the meteorite remains fully intact for future analysis. This is a significant advantage given how precious and scientifically irreplaceable the specimen is.
It is hard to picture the dusty red sphere that Mars appears to be today as once being a water world, yet mounting evidence points to the planet having hosted large Earth-like oceans until roughly three billion years ago. Most of that water has since vanished, though some remains in the form of ice deposits buried near the planet’s equator, frost on the peaks of Martian mountains, and a massive underground reservoir discovered in 2024. Black Beauty is widely regarded as the oldest direct evidence of water on Mars, making it a key piece in the puzzle of how the planet acquired and eventually lost its once-abundant liquid water.
With NASA having recently suspended its Mars Sample Return mission, which was intended to bring samples collected by the Perseverance rover back to Earth, meteorites like Black Beauty have become the only direct means of studying Martian water up close. Researchers are eager to continue analyzing the meteorite’s interior using the new neutron scanning technique, hoping to extract even more information about early Martian geology and the conditions that once existed on the planet’s surface. The possibility that warm, liquid water once flowed across Mars keeps the question of ancient Martian life very much alive.
For broader context, Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second smallest in the Solar System, with a diameter of about 4,212 miles. It has two small moons, Phobos and Deimos, and its thin atmosphere is composed mostly of carbon dioxide. Mars has the largest volcano in the Solar System, Olympus Mons, which stands nearly 72,000 feet tall. The planet’s reddish appearance is caused by iron oxide, or rust, on its surface. Martian meteorites found on Earth are extremely rare, with only a few hundred confirmed specimens known to science, and they reach us after being ejected from the Martian surface by powerful asteroid or comet impacts and traveling through space for millions of years before landing here.
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