Meteorite 'Black Beauty' expands window for when life might have existed on Mars

The early surface of Mars consisting of a liquid magma ocean crystallized extremely rapidly, just 20 million year after the formation of the solar system. Thereafter, a solid crust emerged on the red planet potentially housing oceans with water and life. This was about 130 million years before a corresponding solid crust appeared on Earth. New evidence for this rapid crystallization and crust formation on Mars has just been published in a study from the Centre for Star and Planet Formation at the Natural History Museum of Denmark, University of Copenhagen. The study, based on the analysis of the rare Mars meteorite Black Beauty, significantly expands the window for when life might have existed on Mars.