4.4-Billion-Year-Old Meteorite Is First-Known Piece of Martian Crust

A 4.4-billion-year-old meteorite may be the first-known example of ancient Martian crust, and it could hold key plot points in the planet's storied history.

Bedouin tribesmen found the rock, nicknamed "Black Beauty," in the Sahara Desert. Scientists first studied the rock in February and initially estimated that it was about 2 billion years old. However, Florida State University Professor Munir Humayun and his team performed more complex experiments on a 3-pound sample and found it was much older

"This date is about 100 million years after the first dust condensed in the solar system," Humayun said. "We now know that Mars had a crust within the first 100 million years of the start of planet building, and that Mars' crust formed concurrently with the oldest crusts on Earth and the Moon." Read more...