A pink rock from the Sahara is 4.1 billion years old — and it remembers when Mars had water

It weighs about 800 grams, it is pink, and it fell from Mars. The meteorite Teghaza 001, found in the Sahara in 2022, formed at least 4.1 billion years ago — making it a rare surviving piece of the Martian crust from the planet's earliest days. In a study published in Science and led by Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, with University of New Mexico scientists Carl Agee and Karen Ziegler, its minerals show traces of ancient magma and of water changing the rock — evidence from a wetter young Mars. Most Martian meteorites come from younger ground; this one opens a window onto the world Mars was before it dried, and may help point future explorers to where its oldest secrets lie.