quick Facts
What is this: NWA 12774, a 16-ounce (454 g) engrit meteorite
Where was it found: Sahara Desert, Northwest Africa
when it was shared: June 1, 2026
Throughout its history, Earth has been bombarded by countless meteorites. About 80,000 have been found so far, but one specific group is extremely rare – and scientists now think they may be evidence of long-dead proto-worlds that orbited Sun.
That rarest group is the “engrites”, which make up only 0.09% of all meteorites. They are among the oldest known rocks Solar systemIt formed within a few million years of the formation of the Solar System 4.56 billion years ago. They contain exceptionally low levels of silica (silicon dioxide), a major component of most asteroids and rocky planets.
An angry meteorite, dubbed nwa 12774(pictured here in cross-polarized light) was discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2019. And a new study on this space rock suggests it may be the first definitive evidence of a long-lost protoplanet that once existed in the early Solar System. (NWA stands for Northwest Africa, a designation given to every meteorite found in this region.)
The findings, published July 1 in the journal Earth and Planetary Science PapersIndications that this “planetary embryo” – if it existed – were composed of engrite and may be just as large. Moon or even Mars planet. It is believed to have orbited the Sun billions of years ago before colliding with another celestial body and disintegrating into debris; A sign of angry meteorites falling on Earth.
In addition to its low silica content, NWA 12774 contains clinopyroxene, a mineral commonly found in the Earth’s crust and mantle. This clinopyroxene is also unusually rich in aluminium, indicating that it formed under extremely high pressure – possibly a high-energy collision.
The researchers wrote that such pressure could not exist inside a small asteroid, indicating that Angrites’ parent body would have had a radius of at least 621 miles (1,000 kilometers). The sharp edges on NWA 12774 suggest that it formed near the surface, meaning the original body was even larger – with a radius of up to 1,118 miles (1,800 km). For comparison, Earth’s Moon has a radius of 1,080 miles (1,737 km), and Mars’s is 2,106 miles (3,390 km).
Another view of the engross meteorite NWA 12774.
(Image credit: CU Boulder/John Kashuba)
“It’s incredible to think that this once happened [another] The world is so big,” study the first author aaron bellA petrologist at the University of Colorado Boulder said in a statement. “We only know it existed because some of its fragments landed on Earth. These meteorites preserved evidence of a completely different route through which the early planets evolved.”
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Due to the lack of silica in angriites, scientists previously theorized that these meteorites originated from small asteroids. But new findings challenge that view.
If they had originated from a protoplanet, the worlds that could have formed from this “embryo” would likely have looked very different than the rocky planets we see today.
“The materials that formed the agate parent body are fundamentally different from those of Earth and Mars,” Bell said. “This points to a distinct and separate evolutionary path in planet formation in the early history of our Solar System.”
It is not clear exactly what happened to the lost protoplanet. However, researchers speculate that some of its fragments may have become the building blocks of other terrestrial planets, including Earth.
Bell, A.S., Waters, L., and Ghiorso, M. (2026). New geobarometric evidence for high-pressure clinopyroxene and a planetary embryo-shaped enigrite parent body in northwest Africa 12774. Earth and Planetary Science Papers, 685120029. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.epsl.2026.120029
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