Meteorites carry ancient solar system materials
Primitive meteorites like the 1969 Murchison find preserve 4.567-billion-year-old minerals and extraterrestrial amino acids that reveal the chemical conditions present during the birth of our solar system.
Calcium-aluminum-rich inclusions found within primitive meteorites are the oldest known solids in the solar system, dating back 4.567 billion years. While Earth's original rocks have been recycled by billions of years of plate tectonics and erosion, these chondrites remain chemically pristine. They serve as geological time capsules from the solar nebula, the primordial disk of gas and dust that eventually coalesced into the Sun and planets.
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