Meteorite found in a drawer at university contains 700-million-year-old evidence of water on Mars
The Lafayette meteorite was discovered in a drawer at Purdue University in 1931, with no clear indication of how it got there. A new analysis of the rock reveals evidence of liquid water on Mars 742 million years ago.
A meteorite discovered in a drawer at a university in 1931 harbors evidence of liquid water on Mars 742 million years ago, new research suggests.
The Lafayette meteorite is a glassy chunk of space rock about 2 inches (5 centimeters) long. It was found at Purdue University nearly a century ago, and no one knew who discovered it or where it came from. It wasn't until the 1980s that researchers discovered that the gasses trapped inside the mysterious rock matched the Martian atmosphere as measured by NASA's Viking landers, according to Purdue University.
Researchers also learned in early studies of the meteorite that its minerals had interacted with liquid water during their formation. No one knew when those minerals had formed, though. Now, a new study, published Nov. 6 in the journal Geochemical Perspectives Letters, finds that they are less than a billion years old.
