3 min readJun 4, 2026 07:17 PM IST A rare meteorite recovered from the Sahara Desert is offering scientists a glimpse into a previously unknown world that may have existed more than 4.5 billion years ago, shortly after the solar system formed. Found in 2019, the meteorite NWA 12774 is super rare, belonging to a group called angrites. These things are really old, some of the earliest volcanic rocks from our solar system. They give us a glimpse into what it was like when planets were just getting started. A recent study in Earth and Planetary Science Letters has a cool theory about where NWA 12774 came from. It might’ve originated on a big planetary body that’s since vanished. So, this challenges older ideas suggesting angrites came from smaller asteroids. Scientists examined the meteorite and identified crystals of a mineral called clinopyroxene that were unusually rich in aluminium. According to the research team, the mineral could only have formed under extremely high pressures, estimated at more than 17.5 kilobars. Such conditions are difficult to explain …