[Rockhounds] A METEORITE OLDER THAN EARTH SHOWS EVIDENCE OF ANCIENT VOLCANISM ON A LONG-GONE PROTOPLANET

[Kreigh Tomaszewski]

Sometimes, descriptions can be too simplistic. For example: Meteorites are
bits of asteroids that fall to Earth.

While true, that's not the whole story. There are many kinds of asteroids;
some are metallic, consisting of mostly iron and nickel, while others are
"stony," being more like rock.

But there's stony, and there's stony. Planetary scientists have found the
oldest igneous meteorite ever seen, and that's a record that will be hard
to break. NWA 11119*, as it's called, has an age measured to be 4.5648 (±
0.0003) billion years old. When it formed, the Earth was still just a
collection of rocks strewn around the Sun.

That in itself is cool but not really ground breaking, since we've seen
meteorites that are even older. But it's the fact that this is an igneous
rock, forged in fire, that makes it remarkable.

https://
syfy.com/syfywire/a-meteorite-older-than-earth-shows-evidence-of-ancient-volcanism-on-a-long-gone-protoplanet