Meteorite which landed in Sahara ‘could be from lost planet in solar system’
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A meteorite which landed in the Sahara last year may have been a rock from a ‘protoplanet’ in the earliest days of our solar system.
Researchers believe that the rock may have been part of the crust of a protoplanet which went on either to form one of the larger planets, or to be smashed to dust.
The meteorite – Erg Chech 002 – is unlike any other known meteorite, experts have said.
It was once molten, solidifying around 4.6 billion years ago - making it the oldest volcanic rock on Earth (it beats its nearest rival by a million years).
Jean-Alix Barrat at the University of Western Brittany in France told New Scientist, “I have been working on meteorites for more than 20 years now, and this is possibly the most fantastic new meteorite I have ever seen.”
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Barrat and his colleagues believe that the rock may have been part of the crust of an ancient protoplanet from the dawn of the solar system – which may have formed larger planets.
Barrat said: “When you go close to the beginning of the solar system, it’s more and more complicated to get samples.
“We probably will not find another sample older than this one.”
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The research was published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
“This meteorite is the oldest magmatic rock analysed to date and sheds light on the formation of the primordial crusts that covered the oldest protoplanets," researchers wrote.
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The finding may help researchers understand how planets – including our Earth – formed.
The rock, containing distinctive large greenish crystals, was found in May near Bir Ben Takoul, southern Algeria, within the Erg Chech sand sea, according to the Meteoritical Society.
The researchers say that such objects are incredibly rare.
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“The crusts of the oldest protoplanets are virtually unknown due to the scarcity of samples," they wrote.
“Although the first protoplanetary crusts were frequently 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 nearly totally destroyed.”
Watch: A search that is out of this world
