Ancient Meteorite Found in the Sahara Holds Secrets About Mars’ Watery Past
Source: Wired ·
The 4.1-billion-year-old meteorite is a “Rosetta Stone for Mars,” preserving clues about how the Martian environment has changed since the solar system formed.
From the source
In 2022, a strange rock was found in the Sahara Desert, and now a new analysis reveals that it’s even more valuable to science than it first appeared. This fragment, weighing about two pounds, came from Mars’ crust . It was likely ejected by an impact, flying through space until it eventually reached Earth . The rock is one of the oldest known samples from our neighboring planet, estimated to be at least 4.1 billion years old. At that time, Earth was a young planet with intense geological activity , likely with oceans but no animals, plants, or any other complex life. The location is not what makes this finding surprising. The Sahara has long been a kind of natural archive of the history of Earth and the solar system . Among its sands, scientists have found 40-million-year-old fossils and other meteorites. In 2019, for example, a 4.5-billion-year-old fragment was recovered that, according to recent research, may have come from an ancient, now-vanished protoplanet , possibly as large…
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