Can you believe how old this rock is?
- Published4 minutes ago
Have you ever found a mysterious object and wondered how old it might be?
Well, that's exactly what Nasa have been doing, as scientists funded by the space agency have been trying to date an ancient meteorite from Mars.
With their workings now complete, the team have just announced that it's over four billion years old, making it one of the oldest Martian meteorites ever found.
Not only that, but this rock from space might help scientists to uncover more secrets about the red planet.
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Scientists think that the rock came from Mars' southern highlands
The meteorite is called Teghaza 001, getting its name from the salt plain in the Sahara Desert where it was discovered.
To work out Teghaza 001's ancient age, scientists looked at the minerals inside the rock for clues about how old it might be.
The fact that the rock has been altered by Martian water suggests it's at least 4.1 billion years old, if not even older.
Whilst they're not sure exactly where on Mars the meteorite is from, scientists say that it matches the types of rock observed by Nasa's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter in the planet's southern highlands.
Looking inside the rock helped unlock some of its secrets
One of the authors who published the new research in a scientific paper, Lee Saper, is really excited about the discovery.
He says: "This is really our first piece of Martian crust from a part of Mars we've never had a sample of before."
So far, 435 meteorites from Mars have been found on Earth, and Teghaza 001 is one of the three oldest rocks, including the4.5 billion year old 'Black Beauty'.
To find their way to Earth, a massive impact would have blasted the pieces of rock from the Martian surface, sending them into space and then - after some time - to Earth.
