New tools unlock new discoveries in science. So when a new type of non-destructive technology becomes widely available, it is inevitable that planetary scientists will pick it up and test it on some meteorites.

New paper now available preprint on arXivA paper by Estrid Neiber of the Technical University of Denmark and co-authors describes the use of two of these (relatively) new tools against one of the world’s most famous meteorites, NWA 7034 (also known as Black Beauty).

Part of Black Beauty’s fame lies in its origins. is part of Mars It is thought that it probably fell to Earth after having a big impact on Mars. It is composed of material that is approximately 4.48 billion years old, making it one of the oldest known Martian materials in the solar system. Needless to say, its beauty comes from its name.

Unfortunately, previous research required scientists to cut out parts of this masterpiece in order to study it. These parts are then crushed or melted to release the materials that make up the rock.

But with the advent of computed tomography (CT) machines, we can now do so much more.

There are two types of CT scanners. One is X-ray CT, which is commonly used in clinics around the world. These are very good at finding heavy, dense materials such as iron and titanium.

Another less common method is neutron CT, which uses neutrons instead of X-rays to pass through the object of study. The results of this scan vary widely, but are generally better at penetrating denser materials and, importantly, detecting hydrogen, one of the key components of water.

In the paper, researchers used both of these techniques to non-destructively test Black Beauty to see what it holds. Although non-destructive, to be sure, they only used small samples of pre-polished meteorites. But when they examined a small sample of material, they found a “crust.”

In geological terms, a crust is simply a term for small pieces of rock that are wedged within larger rocks. The discovery of crust is not surprising. Scientists have known for decades that Black Beauty is made up of crusts. This makes sense, given that we knew that meteorites originated from rocks amalgamated by Martian impacts.

But the particular type of crust that CT discovered was new.

These hydrogen-rich clusters, known as “hydrogen-rich iron oxyhydroxide” or H-Fe-ox crusts, accounted for about 0.4% of the volume of the Black Beauty samples examined and were about the size of a fingernail.

While this may seem like a small amount, chemistry calculations inside the meteorite show that these tiny rocks contain up to about 11% of the sample’s total water content.

Black Beauty itself contains an estimated 6,000 parts per million (ppm) of water, an extremely high amount coming from a planet that currently has very little water. Importantly, however, these findings Discovery of samples containing water At Jezero Crater by Perseverance.

Even though Black Beauty comes from a completely different Martian location than the rover’s samples, the association between the samples proves that liquid water was probably widespread on the Martian surface billions of years ago.

This beautiful meteorite itself is essentially a single rock sample return mission. But the scientists who analyzed it wanted to use the same non-destructive CT technique for samples from future Mars sample return missions. The CT scan allows direct visualization of the titanium housing where the sample was collected.

but, recent cancellations Because of that program, it may be a very long time before such direct planetary samples are exposed to the powerful tools we have on Earth.

Related: Mars: Scientists have discovered how blue the red planet once was

However, China’s sample return mission is still being planned, so it probably won’t take as long as expected. Until then, similar non-destructive testing of other Martian meteorites would be a good use of expertise and equipment. We hope that more studies will be conducted on other samples in the future.

This article was first published today’s universe. please read original article.