Martian meteorite discovered in Morocco holds key to life on Mars

A multinational team of scientists, including Hasnaa Chennaoui Aoudjehane, professor at the Hassan II University of Casablanca, discovered that the Martian meteorite Tissint has a large diversity of organic molecules that may  provide fresh information about the habitability of the Red Planet and potentially significant hints about Earth’s geological history.

There are only five Martian meteorites that have been seen as they plummeted to Earth, and Tissint, which crashed landed in Morocco more than 11 years ago, is one of them. About 30 miles away from the town it is named for, pieces of it were discovered dispersed throughout the desert.

“The prospecting of the organic matter contained in the Tissint meteorite can help answer the question of the presence of a form of life on the planet in the past,” read a statement from the Moroccan university.

According to the same source, the results of this study were published in “Science Advances” by an international team of researchers led by Philippe Schmitt Koplin, professor at the Technical University of Munich.

The same source added that the work carried out in this article presents “the most complete catalog ever made on the diversity of organic compounds contained in the Martian meteorite.”

“Mars and Earth share many aspects of their evolution,” said lead author Schmitt-Kopplin. “And while life arose and thrived on our home planet, the question of whether it ever existed on Mars is a very hot research topic that requires deeper knowledge of our neighboring planet’s water, organic molecules, and reactive surfaces.”

Carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulfur, and occasionally additional elements are found in organic compounds. Although prior study on Martian meteorites showed that they can be produced by non-biological processes, often known as abiotic organic chemistry, organic molecules are frequently linked to life.