Oldest meteorite ever found: 4.6 MILLION-year-old space rocks discovered in the Sahara could shed light on the early solar system
- Experts have analyzed a meteorite discovered in the Sahara desert last year
- The rock weighs 70 pounds and is brown in color with green spots throughout
- It consists mostly of volcanic rocks, but also silicon dioxide found on earth.
- The name EC 002 is 4.6 billion years old and was once part of an early planet
An ancient meteorite or achondrite was discovered last year in the Sahara desert that has now been identified as a piece from a protoplanet that formed before Earth formed.
The space rock, named EC 002, dates back 4.6 billion years and consists mostly of volcanic rocks, which experts believe come from the crust of a very early planet.
The team of French and Japanese scientists determined that the rock used to be liquid lava, but cooled and solidified for more than 100,000 years to form the 70-pound piece that eventually pulled to our planet.
Researchers also note that no asteroids with similar properties have been found, suggesting that the protoplanet from which it came has since disappeared by becoming parts of larger bodies or ‘simply destroyed’.
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Last year, an ancient achondrite was discovered in the Sahara Desert that has now been identified as a piece from a protoplanet that was formed before Earth formed. The rocky meteorite, named EC 002, dates 4.6 billion years
Anchondrites originate from early planetary bodies that were reformed from molten fragments and were thrown into space as a result of another collision.
These rocks also look at first glance like those on Earth, and are considered a rare discovery in the scientific community.
The latest anchondrite is named after its landing site in the Erg Chech dunes in Algeria, which consists of several meteorites that together weigh about 70 pounds, Motherboard reports.
Only a few thousand of these have been analyzed, most of which are basaltic, but EC 002 is mostly of volcanic rock, making it rich in sodium, iron and magnesium.
The rock is mostly made up of volcanic rocks, which experts believe originated from the crust of a very early planet. The team describes EC 002 as ‘relatively coarse grains, brown and beige’, noting that it was also spotted with yellow and green pieces.
The latest anchondrite is named after its landing site in the Erg Chech dune lake in Algeria, which consists of several meteorites that together weigh about 70 pounds.
With that in mind, the team says that EC 002 ‘is also the oldest magnetic rock ever observed.’
Researchers have determined its age by studying the rock’s magnesium and aluminum isotopes, which showed that it formed about 4.566 billion years ago – while the earth is believed to be 4.543 billion years old.
The team describes EC 002 as ‘relatively coarse grains, brown and beige’, noting that it was also spotted with yellow and green pieces.
They also note that when they looked at other celestial bodies, focusing on their wavelengths, they found nothing that matched the wavelength reflected by EC 002.
The meteorite is also 58 percent silicon dioxide, making it even rarer than others previously found on Earth, as this mineral is commonly found in volcanic regions on our planet.
‘Protoplanets covered by andesitic crusts were probably regular,’ the team writes in the study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
“However, no asteroid shares the spectral properties of EC 002, which indicates that almost all of these bodies have disappeared, either because they formed the building blocks of larger bodies or planets or were simply destroyed.”