The Allan Hills (ALH) 84001 meteorite – so-named for the area of Antarctica that it was found on in 1984 – contains orange-colored carbonate minerals that likely precipitated from salty liquid water on Mars billions of years ago.

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© 2023 IFLScience. All Rights Reserved
Madison Dapcevich
Staff Writer
A rock fragment of Martian meteorite ALH 84001 (left). An enlarged area (right) shows the orange-colored carbonate grains on the host orthopyroxene rock. Koike et al. (2020) Nature Communications.
The Allan Hills (ALH) 84001 meteorite – so-named for the area of Antarctica that it was found on in 1984 – contains orange-colored carbonate minerals that likely precipitated from salty liquid water on Mars billions of years ago.
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