Things of Mars It often makes headlines for various reasons, but here’s something you’ve probably never heard of. A research team found traces of ballpoint ink in meteorite samples from Mars.
And no, these signs have nothing to do with Martians. Rather, the ink was left over from the meteorite sample preparation processes, which the team received from NASA’s Johnson Space Center. This is surprising, since avoiding unwanted contamination It is something that many institutions, not just NASA, intend to do. The dark findings, recently published in Applied Geochemistrysuggest that, despite all our efforts, these rare samples love to pick up contaminants, some of which may be impossible to remove. The research was carried out by a group from the University of the Basque Country in Spain.
“As planetary sample return missions advance, the challenge of designing contamination-aware preparation protocols becomes increasingly important,” the team wrote in the paper.
Theseus’s space rock
To be clear, it is almost impossible for samples (whether from Mars, the Moon, or anywhere else) to reach Earth unchanged. The mere act of traveling through space and entering Earth makes them, for all practical purposes, a changed rock.
“When (rock samples) pass through the Earth’s atmosphere…they undergo changes, usually caused by high temperatures and pressures, which usually result in the formation of a kind of crust over them,” explained Leire Coloma, one of the study’s co-authors and an analytical chemist, in a university statement. “This outer layer is therefore altered and means we cannot determine with certainty its original mineralogical composition.”
As a result, scientists often remove this crispy outer layer before studying what’s underneath. According to the study, these sample preparation protocols tend to be diverse and extensive: ultrasonic cleaning, cutting with diamond saws, soaking with solvents or polymeric lubricants, and the list goes on.
Of course, these cleaning methods differ depending on the type of sample the researchers are working with. Still, the team noted in the paper that these variations “underscore the lack of standardized, contamination-aware preparation protocols.” As a result, they added, this complicates efforts to solidify the best way to identify whether an interesting chemical found in the samples is legitimate.
Ballpoint ink and… polyester?
The new findings really clarified this point. For the analysis, the team studied six portions of post-processed Martian meteorites collected between 2001 and 2014. The researchers took note of how each sample had been processed for scientific review at that time. They also included as a reference point a meteorite that never went through processing.
Each sample was subjected to Raman spectroscopy, a common method used to analyze the chemical composition of extraterrestrial objects. As expected, the team identified seven different contaminants in two categories, either those formed during processing or those that come from various handling processes. Some compounds, such as traces of diamonds or ethyl alcohol, can clearly be attributed to specific processing methods.
But things started to get weirder from there. The team found a copper compound and a synthetic organic molecule used in ballpoint inks and gel pens, respectively. A tall oil rosin corresponding to a type of printing ink was also found, as well as blue polyester, probably coming from some type of textile product.
No need to be scared
That said, the likelihood of scientists confusing these contaminants with products from Mars is quite small, the study emphasized. Generally speaking, analytical methods are reasonably good at separating contaminants. Therefore, there is no reason to be suspicious when reading what scientists have found in Martian meteorites.
However, the researchers recommend that extra caution (and hopefully some consolidation of cleaning protocols) could help minimize errors. The study proposed a couple of steps to reduce debris from the sample preparation process, but also added that procedures would have to be different for specific primitive meteorites and mineral groups.
In the statement, the team expressed their intentions to continue testing the best way to clean samples. Researchers from the University of the Basque Country are one of the teams that will receive new Martian samples once NASA Perseverance The rover returns to Earth. And they want to be prepared.
