Sahara Space Rock

Facts for Prelims

Sahara Space Rock

News: In May 2020, scientists discovered unusual rocks containing distinctive greenish crystals in the Sahara Desert, which were identified as remnants from the early Solar System.

About:
• The Sahara Space Rock is a meteorite known as Erg Chech 002, which was discovered in May 2020 in the Erg Chech sand sea, a dune-filled region of the Sahara Desert in southern Algeria.
• The rocks were found to contain distinctive greenish crystals and were identified as lumps of rubble billions of years old, left over from the dawn of the Solar System.
• Erg Chech 002 is the oldest volcanic rock ever found, having melted long ago in the fires of some nowvanished ancient protoplanet.
• In new research published in Nature Communications, scientists analyzed lead and uranium isotopes in Erg Chech 002 and calculated it to be some 4.56556 billion years old, give or take 120,000 years. This is one of the most precise ages ever calculated for an object from space and the results also cast doubt on some common assumptions about the early Solar System.