Furthermore,
Oldest crater earth could reveal:
Scientists have identified a meteorite crater in Australia, dating from almost three billion years. Nevertheless, These rocks are among the oldest known. Similarly, and the site could represent one of the places on earth which most resembles the planet Mars. In addition, What to study our distant neighbor on the spot.
How to study Mars without going there? Moreover, On Earth, scientists have found a solution: analogues. However, These abandoned places have some common characteristics with the red planet and can be used for experiments of all kinds. Consequently, It can be areas unfit for the development of life such as Antarctica. Moreover, the Atacama desert in Chile, or simply particularly arid places as you can sometimes find in Spain.
Miralga, Australian March – Oldest crater earth could reveal
Now, a study published in the journal Science Advances Unveils a new destination: Australia. Meanwhile, In the northwest of this continent island oldest crater earth could reveal is a structure, a vestige of an ancient impact, called Miralga. Furthermore, On site, researchers discovered rocks shealed by a meteoritemeteorite About 2.7 billion years ago, in a crater about 100 kilometers in diameter. Better still: basalt found on the spot date, meanwhile, 3.47 billion years.
This would make it the oldest known crater on earth. An extremely interesting canonical age. because if the earth has evolved a lot since its creation, it could be less the case of March. Apart from erosion caused by the fine atmosphere on the surface. the March in March has not undergone significant changes for several billion years. It is as preserved, unlike the earth subject to plates tectonics, volcanism and bad weather.
The oldest impact crater in the discovered world, rewriting the ancient history of the earth. © Curtin University
If we find life here …
The oldest crater earth could reveal meteorites of March studied show that the surface is largely made up of crustcrust basaltbasalt altered during the period of NoachienNoachienabout 3.7 billion years ago. Dates that correspond to those of the rocks found in Miralga, which could make it a first choice analog.
« For example. many efforts have tried to identify shatter cones [des cônescônes de percussion, roches typiques des impacts de météorite, NdR] On Mars, but without success in the scabs of Gale with Curiositydetail the authors of the study. Especially because we have no specific images that could help find the same structures on Mars. Images of shatter cones In the Miralga crater. which are formed with the same rocks as those found on Mars, could provide mattermatter So that the algorithm detects them better there ”.
What if Miralga helped in search of extraterrestrial life? The impact structure also contains biosignatures dating from the beginnings of the appearance of life on earth. sometimes older than the impact itself. The detection of these signatures could also help to seek old traces of life on Mars which. if they exist, could have appeared significantly at the same time.
From now on. the authors hope to study the area in more detail to better understand the exact chronology of the events that took place there. While waiting for a real stay inhabited on Mars!
Further reading: A new era for Donkey Kong [entrevue].