NWA 4502 7.1g

Carbonaceous chondrites are a rare and scientifically important group of stone meteorites. As Buseck and Hua stated so intriguingly in their 1993 paper: “They are nebular leftovers and thus invaluable recorders of some of the oldest and best kept secrets … of the solar system.” In other words, carbonaceous chondrite meteorites carry within them the last traces — sometimes in the form of tiny diamonds — of extremely ancient and long-vanished suns or planets that pre-dated our own solar system by billions of years. As such, carbonaceous chondrite meteorites contain the oldest materials that any human has ever encountered.