It turns out rocks can be hurled much higher from the Martian surface than previously believed.
"But we can recreate a similar kind of impact in a lab setting. By doing so, we found it takes much less pressure to launch a Mars meteorite than we thought."
and onto the surface of our planet, the rocks must survive massive temperatures and pressures and an eventual crash landing., these meteorites are the only way they can study the Red Planet's rocks up close and personal. While the meteorites are being studied, other researchers are working to better understand the nature of the impacts upon Mars that could launch pieces of the Red Planet in the first place.
The Caltech/JPL team set about smashing plagioclase-containing rocks from Earth to observe how high pressures cause the mineral to transform. This involved using a powerful gun to blast the rocks with projectiles fired at five times the speed of sound, simulating the kinds of pressures rocks ejected from Mars would experience.
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