Research identifies Martian crater that ejected Black Beauty meteorite

Researchers, using machine learning, have identified the particular crater on Mars that ejected the oldest and the most famous ‘Black Beauty’ meteorite, offering critical geological clues about the earliest origins of the Red Planet.

Designated Northwest Africa (NWA) 7034, and nicknamed Black Beauty, this Martian meteorite was found in 2011 in the Sahara Desert. It weighs approximately 11 ounces (320 grams).

The machine learning algorithm used to pinpoint the exact home of the famous crater was developed in-house at Curtin by an interdisciplinary group that included members from the Curtin Institute for Computation and the School of Civil and Mechanical Engineering, as well as the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre and the Australian Space Data Analysis Facility, with funding from the Australian Research Council.

"Finding the region where the ‘Black Beauty’ meteorite originates is critical because it contains the oldest Martian fragments ever found, aged at 4.48 billion years old, and it shows similarities between Mars’ very old crust, aged about 4.53 billion years old, and today’s Earth continents. The region we identify as being the source of this unique Martian meteorite sample constitutes a true window into the earliest environment of the planets, including the Earth, which our planet lost because of plate tectonics and erosion," says lead author Dr Anthony Lagain, from Curtin’s Space Science and Technology Centre in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences.

The team used one of the fastest supercomputers in the Southern Hemisphere at the Pawsey Supercomputing Research Centre, and the Curtin HIVE (Hub for Immersive Visualisation and eResearch), to analyse a very large volume of high-resolution planetary images through a machine-learning algorithm to detect impact craters.

"This research paved the way to locate the ejection site of other Martian meteorites, in order to create the most exhaustive view of the Red Planet’s geological history," said Co-author Professor Gretchen Benedix, also from Curtin’s Space Science and Technology Centre in the School of Earth and Planetary Sciences.