Mars Meteorites: Pieces of the Red Planet on Earth (Photos)

Tissint Martian Meteorite

Image © Natural History Museum, London

The rear of the stone from the Tissint Martian meteorite is almost completely covered with a glossy black fusion crust.

Oldest Mars Meteorite Younger Than Thought

Thomas Campbell

Tom Lapen and his colleagues' data showed that the true age of the Martian meteorite ALH84001 is about 400 million years younger than earlier age estimates.

Newest Martian Meteorite, NWA 7034

Carl Agee

NWA 7034, found in Northwest Africa, has 10 times the water content of other previously found Martian meteorites.

Martian Meteorite NWA 7034

Carl Agee

NWA 7034 could help scientists piece together a previously unstudied time in Martian geologic history.

Mars Meteorite

AMNH/D. Finnin

This piece of hardened lava came from Mars. After being knocked off the Martian surface by an asteroid or comet, it drifted in space for millions of years, until it reached Earth and fell to the ground as a meteorite.

Tissint Martian Meteorite With Fusion Crust

© Natural History Museum, London

The 1.1 kg stone of the Tissint Martian meteorite at the Natural History Museum, London. The rear of the stone is almost completely covered with a glossy black fusion crust.

Newfound Martian Meteorite

© 2011 Darryl Pitt / Macovich Collection

A sample of a Mars rock from the Tissint meteorite fall, which dropped chunks of the Red Planet into the Morocco desert in July 2011.

Mars meteorites study

NASA

A study published in November 2012 that analyzed Martian meteorites found that Earth and the Red Planet share similar formation histories.

Polished Section of Tissint Meteorite

Science/AAAS]

False color image of a polished section obtained from EDS analyses. Fe is red; Mg is green; Ca is yellow; Al is white. Notice the olivine macrocrysts zoning and the variable composition of core olivine. Pyroxene is blue-green in the groundmass, maskelynite is white. Image released Oct. 11, 2012.

Life's Building Blocks Found in Mars Rock

Infamous Mars rock purported to carry signs of Martian biology. Years later, debate continues to swirl around meteorite ALH84001 and whether or not biological processes in the rock of ages are truly evident.

Meteorite ALH84001

NASA

The famed Mars meteorite ALH84001.

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