The Evolving Earth

Meteorites

The Solar System began to form about 4.5 billion years ago. The oldest-known earth rock is about 4 billion years old. A huge chapter of Earth's history--about 500 million years--is missing. But meteorites have fallen on our planet since the Solar System first formed and provide clues about that period. Many meteorites are hundreds of millions of years older than the oldest-known earth rocks. Most meteorites originate in the asteroid belt. Some are fragments of large asteroids destroyed early in the Solar System's history. Others are pieces of much smaller asteroids that preserve the dust from which the planets first formed. A few come from the Moon and Mars. Their chance encounters with Earth provide us with an extraordinary look at distant worlds and allow us to discover something about the processes that gave birth to the Solar System.

Nakhla Meteorite

Canyon Diablo Meteorite

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