Meteorite found in Mali is one of the three oldest from Mars: more than 4.1 billion years old

The meteorite Teghaza 001, found in Mali in 2022, is one of the three oldest known meteorites from Mars, NASA said on October 29, alongside a study in Science. The roughly 800-gram stone formed more than 4.1 billion years ago and was altered by water about 4.1 billion years ago.

About 435 Martian meteorites are known. The authors, led by Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, name 13 possible sites on Mars from which the stone was ejected.

"It records interactions of water and rock and maybe even an imprint of the Martian atmosphere as it was losing water," said co-author Lee Saper of NASA Ames.