Wreckage from a mysterious, ancient planet spotted orbiting Mars

There are a bunch of asteroids orbiting the red planet commonly referred to as ‘Trojans’, and
now scientists say these mysterious objects may have belonged to an ancient world that was part
of our solar system.
According to a new analysis, the objects orbiting Mars are all made from the same composition
which indicates they fractured from a planet in the distant past, in what was a massive collision.
So far, scientists have discovered 9 Mars Trojans —the largest one of them measures 2km in diameter, while the remaining 8 span between 500 meters and 1.3 kilometers across. Trojan asteroids aren’t a new thing in our solar
system. In fact, astronomers say that these objects have been present since the beginning of
our solar system when planets, moons, comets, and asteroids were distributed in a totally
different way.

In fact, there are between 6,000 and 6,500 trojans in Jupiter’s and Neptune’s orbit. The red planet has nine of them, and the first one
discovered 35 years ago is called Eureka. This object is the largest of all nine trojans orbiting
Mars. To understand the Trojans orbiting Mars, an international group of astronomers used the Very
large Telescope in Chile in order to obtain detailed characteristics or Mars’ Trojan family.

Experts found that the asteroids circling Mars are ALL made of the same material since the
spectrum of sunlight they reflect is similar. Left: The paths traced by the known Martian Trojans around L4 or L5 (crosses) relative to
Mars (red disk) and the Sun (yellow disk). The dotted circle indicates the average Sun-Mars distance. Right: Enlargement of inset (dashed
rectangle) showing the paths of the 8 L5 Trojans: 1998 VF31 (marked as “VF31” – blue), Eureka (red) and the 6 objects identified as family
members (amber). The filled disks indicate the relative sizes of the asteroids. Eureka, the largest
member, is about 2 km across. Credit: Apostolos Christou.
However, scientists found curious details.

According to experts, each of the satellites has a mysterious composition compared to other
objects in our solar system. All of the objects are composed of olivine—a mineral that comes into
existence in larger materials as the are exposed
to extremely high pressure and temperatures.

Experts point out that “Many other families exist
in the Asteroid Belt between Mars and Jupiter, and even among Jupiter’s Trojans, but none are
made up of such olivine-dominated asteroids”. This is why scientists believe that the Trojans origin Mars were once part of a mini planets
mantle. Mini planets are believed to have developed a crust, a mantle, and core, but have been destroyed in the distant past due to cataclysmic collisions.