Strange meteorites may be from Mars

Two strange meteorites found in Antarctica may be from Mars, the US National Science Foundation says. The objects, called shergottites after the Indian town of Shergotty, where the first of this type was found in the 1800s, seem to have crystallized from lava no more than 1.2 billion years ago.Nearly all other meteorites are about 4.5 billion years old.

Scientists think these older bodies are material left over from the formation of the solar system. The younger objects from Antarctica, however, could well be material blasted out of the surface of another planet by a large incoming meteorite. Mars, which is volcanic and has relatively low grav ity, seems a likely candidate for the planet of origin.