Rare Sahara meteorite points to lost protoplanet (opens in new tab)

A rare meteorite found in the Sahara Desert may be a fragment of a lost protoplanet that orbited the early sun before a catastrophic collision broke it apart, according to a study published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters and reports on the University of Colorado Boulder-led research team. The meteorite, Northwest Africa 12774, is an angrite, a rare class of ancient volcanic meteorites whose chemistry has been difficult to reconcile with standard models of rocky body formation. Delo re...