An international group of geologists said that Mars could have formed in the region of the solar system in which the main asteroid belt is located at the moment, and then migrated to a nearer to the Sun orbit under the influence of Jupiter. According to the researchers, this can explain the difference in the chemical composition of the Red Planet and Earth.

The conclusions of the researchers were published in the journal Earth and Planetary Science Letters Analysis of the Martian meteorites that sometimes hit the Earth showed differences in the isotope composition of oxygen in the rocks. If Mars originated in the same place as the Earth, then its composition should have been similar to the terrestrial. In the new study, the researchers conducted computer simulations and described a scenario that could explain how the differences between Mars and Earth and its small mass.