New Study Dates Rare Mars Meteorite to 1.2 Billion Years Old

WASHINGTON, Aug. 25, 2026 /PRNewswire/ --  A team of scientists from various institutions including the Universities Space Research Association have determined that a newly discovered martian meteorite is 1.27 billion years old, and it originated from a previously unsampled, pristine source on Mars. Their work was recently published in the journal Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta.

Dr. Robert "Willie" Nicklas of Universities Space Research Association's Lunar and Planetary Institute, who was part of the team, used high-precision isotopic techniques to date the sample to approximately 1.273 billion years ago, making it the first such discovery of its kind.

Dr. Nicklas conceived the study, secured the meteorite sample, and supervised Boston College graduate student and lead author Dylan Seal throughout the isotopic analyses and preparation of the manuscript.

Because rocks from Mars reach Earth only when impacts eject them from the planet's surface, researchers have access to a relatively limited collection of approximately 400 martian meteorites for study. Dated samples from the most common group of igneous martian rocks — the shergottites — are almost entirely geologically young, less than 600 million years old.

Between that point in time and the next oldest characterized shergottites, dating back 2.4 billion years, there is an approximately 1.8-billion-year gap in understanding the geology and history of Mars, a period for which no shergottite samples exist to provide information about geological activity on Mars. And that makes the research more challenging.

Dr. Nicklas stated, "We were fortunate to have access to such an unusual shergottite. This study demonstrates that the diverse collection of Martian meteorites, many of which remain undated, continues to provide valuable insights into the geologic history of the Red Planet."

According to Dr. Seal, Mars formed very quickly, less than approximately 5 million years after the birth of the solar system, and it does not have plate tectonics like Earth, allowing these early-formed compositions to remain pristine.

In addition to its age of 1.27 billion years, its chondritic initial isotope composition was equally surprising, providing important new boundaries on the processes that occurred in the very early solar system as Mars formed.

The work will be continued by Seal during his postdoctoral fellowship at the Carnegie Institution in Washington September, and it will extend martian meteorite isotope research in several new and exciting directions.

The research team included lead author Dylan M. Seal (Boston College), along with co-authors Melody Z. Chen (Boston College), Robert W. Nicklas (Lunar and Planetary Institute), Ethan F. Baxter (Boston College), James M.D. Day (Scripps Institution of Oceanography), Ben G. Rider-Stokes (The Open University), Anthony B. Love (Appalachian State University), and James Malley (The Open University).

DOI: 10.1016/j.gca.2026.06.035 

About USRA

Founded in 1969, the Universities Space Research Association (USRA) is an independent, nonprofit organization that advances space- and Earth-related science, engineering, and technology through innovative research, education, and workforce development programs. USRA partners with government agencies, academic institutions, and industry to address some of the nation's most complex scientific and technical challenges. For more information, visit www.usra.edu.

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SOURCE Universities Space Research Association