Scientists make major Mars discovery from meteorite that's 4.5 billion years old

Scientists have figured out a key part of Mars' history after examining a meteorite believed to date back 4.5 billion years.

The chunk of space rock, which was pinged in to space after a huge impact on the surface of Mars, landed on Earth's Sahara desert a good while ago.

Dubbed 'Black Beauty' by scientific experts examining the object - a name given to it as a result of its smooth black surface - the multi-billion-year-old rock was first discovered back in 2011 after being dug up in Morocco.

Found by nomads in the desert, it was bought by a meteorite dealer (yes, they are a real thing) before segments were donated for research.

Mars didn't always look so barren (Getty Stock Image)

Now officially called Northwest Africa 7034, scientists have been analysing the meteorite for the last 13 years.

And now, Aaron Cavosie and his team at Curtin University in Australia, have made a discovery about the rock that has changed how we think about Mars.

"It’s a wonderful buffet of Martian history, a mixture of very old and very young rocks," he said.

"But many of the fragments in it are among the oldest pieces of rock from Mars."

The stunning 'Black Beauty' meteorite (University of New Mexico)

The piece that was analysed by Cavosie and company had been crystallised in magma far below the surface of Mars.

In that piece, they found elements iron, aluminium and sodium. And the weird thing about them? They were arranged in thin, uniform layers.

What does this mean? Well, it hints at what Mars was once like before being a desolate rock with very little atmosphere.

Instead, it shows us that hot water was once present on the planet.

"We wondered, where else do you find elements like this," Carvosie explained.

Hot water on Mars was once a thing, the research suggests (Getty Stock Image)

"These kinds of zircons are only known to form where hydrothermal processes, hot water systems, are active during magmatism.

"The hot water facilitates transportation of the iron, aluminium and sodium into the crystal as it grows, layer by layer."

Back on Earth, these elemental layers are present in places such as gold ore deposits - with the comparison almost identical to the Martian object.

Eva Scheller, of Stanford University, added that it indicated a time in Martian history where water vapour had been released into Mars' atmosphere before the formation of rivers and lakes on the planet.

“At such an ancient age of 4.5 billion years, we are placed at the timing of when Mars formed,” Scheller said.

“So this would mark evidence of some of the earliest behaviour of water on Mars.”