Meteorite Found in Sahara is Piece of Mars at Least 4.1 Billion Years Old
Researchers have identified a meteorite named Teghaza 001 as a 4.1-billion-year-old fragment of Mars' primordial crust. This rare specimen provides unique insights into the early geological history of the Red Planet.
Why it matters
It serves as a 'Rosetta Stone' for Martian geology, helping scientists understand the planet's formation and early environmental conditions.
Teghaza 001, a meteorite found in the Sahara Desert in Mali four years ago, is a fragment of Mars’ primordial crust, formed at least 4.1 billion years ago, according to a new paper in the journal Science .
The largest fragment of the Martian meteorite Teghaza 001. Image credit: Liu et al ., doi: 10.1126/science.adz5646.
Teghaza 001 consists of eight fragments with a total mass of 798.5 g, the largest being 442 g and roughly 10 cm across.
“It was only after we started looking closely that we realized this meteorite is really unique,” said Dr. Yang Liu, a researcher at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
“One of the paper’s reviewers called it a Rosetta Stone for Mars.”
Nearly all of the roughly 300 known Martian meteorites are far younger than the planet’s surface, which is dominated by terrain more than 3 billion years old.
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