'Black Beauty' forms bulk of red planet rocks
New York, Feb 1 , 2015: The bulk of rocks on the surface of Mars probably look a lot like what is called "Black Beauty", a meteorite found a few years ago in the Moroccan desert, says a study. The meteorite NWA 7034 has been shown to be a 4.4 billion-year-old chunk of the Martian crust, and according to the new analysis, rocks just like it may cover vast swathes of Mars. Spectroscopic measurements of the meteorite are a spot-on match with orbital measurements of the Martian dark plains, areas where the planet's coating of red dust is thin and the rocks beneath are exposed, the researc