Scientists believe they have found a piece of an ancient planet in Algeria

A piece of a meteorite found in Algeria may be part of an ancient planet that never fully formed.

According to an analysis of the rock, the composition and age indicate that it is not only older than planet Earth, but that it could also have formed volcanically.

This is important because it means that it could be part of the crust of an object called a ‘protoplanet’.

The meteorite – called Erg Chech 002 – is an insight into the early stages of the planet’s formation.

It was found in May 2020, and the various pieces of rock weighed weighed a total of about 32 kilograms.

Credit: A. Irving / www.lpi.usra.edu
Credit: A. Irving / www.lpi.usra.edu

The composition of the rock showed that it had to come from a body with an internal melting system – one of the middle stages of the formation of a planet.

Erg Chech 002, nicknamed EC 002, was studied by a team of scientists led by geochemist Jean-Alix Barrat of the University of Western Brittany in France

The team’s analysis found that the rock is really, really old. In fact, the radioactive decay of the elements in the rock indicates that they crystallized about 4.565 billion years ago.

“This meteorite is the oldest magmatic rock ever analyzed and sheds light on the formation of the craters that covered the oldest protoplanets,” the newspaper said.

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The study added: ‘The crusts of the oldest protoplanets are virtually unknown due to the scarcity of monsters.

“Here we describe the oldest known lava that crystallized about 4565 Ma ago and was formed by partial melting of a chondritic parent body.

“26Al-26Mg systematics indicate that the elapsed time between melting and crystallization was significant, in the order of several 105 y, probably due to the viscosity of the magma.

“Although the first protoplanetary crusts were often not basaltic, their remains are not detected in the asteroid belt, because their parent bodies served as the building blocks for larger rocky bodies or were almost completely destroyed.

EC 002 gives scientists the opportunity to develop our understanding of how the solar system originated.

And as we get closer to finding out more about the origin of our own planet, scientists have also spotted a planet that gives them the opportunity to study the atmosphere of a Earth-like alien world.

It is believed that the super-Earth – called Gliese 486 b – may hold the key to finding extraterrestrial life.

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