NASA Map Marks 13 Spots on Mars That Could Be Home to an Ancient Meteorite

NASA's science website shows, as of October 31, 2026, a global map of Mars with 13 locations that match the makeup of the meteorite Teghaza 001, pointing to the planet's southern highlands as its likely birthplace, NASA says.

NASA's Photojournal page says the white circles mark areas with mineral and chemical traits like those of Teghaza 001, one of the most ancient Martian meteorites found on Earth. Scientists used data from NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter to find them. The base map comes from the Mars Orbiter Laser Altimeter on NASA's Mars Global Surveyor. NASA says scientists can never know for sure where a Martian meteorite began.

Scientific American reports that a paper published in the journal Science dates the rock to at least 4.1 billion years ago. Nomadic meteorite hunters found it in the Sahara in 2022. Lead author Yang Liu of NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory says her team has "only scratched the surface" of what it can tell us. One detail stands out: the only other known intact ancient Martian sample, found in Antarctica in the 1980s, is just 10 million years younger, according to Scientific American.

Arya Udry, a planetary scientist at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, who was not part of the study, says the uncertainty about the rock's origin is "another example of why we need to bring back samples."

Liu says her research on Teghaza 001 is ongoing. No new release date or mission tied to the map has been announced.

Stay curious.

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