Question: how much did you find about red planet?

Natasha Stephen answered on 13 Jun 2014:

We have learnt a lot about Mars so far but there is still a lot more to go!

I have been working on a new meteorite from Mars known as Tissint. It was seen to fall in Morocco in 2011 and was collected really soon after it landed, which is vitally important for my work as it means the meteorite won’t be affected by erosion or weathering! It’s great to be working on a new sample like this and we’re really lucky at the Natural History Museum (where I work) as we have the largest piece of it, 1.3 kg!

Working on that meteorite has allowed us to look at igneous rocks that formed on Mars but below the surface of the planet! This is so exciting because with the satellites orbiting Mars and the rovers driving around on the surface, we only get to see the top few cm of the planet whereas this meteorite would have originated underground, many metres if not km down below the surface!

It’s a really exciting rock and it is teaching us a lot about the types of volcanoes that we can find on Mars and what is happening below the surface; something we won’t get to learn from the Mars rovers alone!