Northwest Africa 16242 | CV3

The NWA 16242 meteorite is a single stone, broken in two. Fitting together like a puzzle, the interior of this rare CV3 shows large and abundant calcium-aluminum-inclusions, or CAIs, distinctive to this type of space rock.

Rare and very ancient, some CV3 meteorites have been shown to contain water, carbon, and even amino acids, suggesting they may have brought the building blocks of life to Earth. As in this specimen, the CV3 sub-group often displays beautiful chondrules (small, glassy spheres) that formed 4.6 billion years ago. CV3s also show large chondrules, but little alteration, meaning they have survived, largely unchanged, since the birth of our solar system.