This old meteorite is helping scientists learn about the early days of our solar system

Meteor shower.
(Image credit: Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

It's green. It's sparkly. It's the size of a baseball. And it's 4.6 billion years old. Meet "Northwest Africa 11119," the meteorite that's helping scientists learn about the early days of our solar system.

Although researchers have found space rocks that date back further before, NWA 11119 is unique because it's the oldest igneous meteorite ever discovered. Igneous means that it was formed by the cooling of hot magma. As a result, NWA 11119 looks very similar to volcanic rock that forms here on Earth — so much so that scientists weren't even sure it was a meteorite at first. But on closer examination, it was confirmed to be "alien in origin," Newsweek reported. And because it's right around the age of this solar system, it must be from "one of the very first volcanic events to take place" in this part of the universe, said Carl Agee, a meteorite curator at the University of New Mexico.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Shivani is the editorial assistant at TheWeek.com and has previously written for StreetEasy and Mic.com. A graduate of the physics and journalism departments at NYU, Shivani currently lives in Brooklyn and spends free time cooking, watching TV, and taking too many selfies.