Lost Mars-Sized Protoplanet Revealed by Tiny Meteorite Clues
A study of the 2019-found NWA 12774 angrite meteorite uses microprobe analyses and geobarometry to argue its parent body was a large planetary embryo. Estimated to have had a radius from about 1,000 km up to roughly 3,300 km (Mars-sized at the high end), this suggests a once-present world that shattered or was dispersed, with fragments landing on Earth and elsewhere in the Solar System. The work is published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters.