Mars meteorite Teghaza 001 dated to at least 4.1 billion years

The short version

• Nomadic meteorite hunters found the Teghaza 001 stone in the Sahara Desert in 2022, and initial analysis indicated it came from Mars.[Scientific American]
• A new Science paper identifies Teghaza 001 as Martian crust at least 4.1 billion years old, according to Scientific American.[Scientific American]
• Its element ratios most closely match Mars's southern highlands, and its minerals show signs of past liquid water, per earlier work from the same team.[Scientific American]
• Scientists do not know exactly where on Mars the meteorite originated, which Anya Udry cites as a reason to return samples.[Scientific American]

Key facts

• Nomadic meteorite hunters discovered the Teghaza 001 stone in the Sahara Desert in 2022.[Scientific American]
• A new paper published in Science identifies Teghaza 001 as a piece of Mars's crust at least 4.1 billion years old.[Scientific American]
• The only other known intact ancient Martian sample is a meteorite found in Antarctica in the 1980s, about 10 million years younger than Teghaza 001.[Scientific American]
• Several hundred Martian meteorites are known, and most reflect only the most recent 600 million years or so of Mars's history.[Scientific American]
• Element ratios in the meteorite most closely match terrain in Mars's southern highlands, based on comparisons with orbiter measurements.[Scientific American]
• Some minerals in the meteorite have been aqueously altered, indicating liquid water once moved through Mars's ancient mantle and crust, according to earlier work by the same team.[Scientific American]

Sources

Outlet counts describe coverage, not independent confirmation. Reports may share a wire service or original source.

• Oldest known Mars rock is a ‘Rosetta stone’ for the Red Planet’s watery pastScientific American metered