A new study suggests that the meteorites that landed on Earth were probably from a crater on Mars.

Researchers from the University of Oslo in Norway believe that these solid space debris were from the Mojave Crater of the Red Planet. To see if this is true, they compared the composition of the meteorites and the elements found in the crater. The data were provided by satellite scans made on Mars. Through this method, they found out that the mineral composition of the crater wall has the same composition with the meteorites.

They then calculated the age of Mojave Crater by analyzing the number of craters and their measurements. They also created a Martian and lunar calendar using data collected from the samples of previous Apollo missions to the moon. According to their model, the Mojave Crater was formed at least three million years ago.

"This age fits very well with the cosmic-ray exposure ages for shergottites," study lead author Stephanie Werner told National Geographic. Shergottites is one of the three groups of meteorites found on Earth; the other two are nakhlites and chassignites. Nakhlites and chassignites were discovered to have been formed millions of years ago, but the origin of shergotittes has remained a mystery. This new study linking shegotitte meteors to the Mojave Crater in Mars can also prove that they came from an area in the planet called Xanthe Terra.

The model developed by Werner also showed that that Xanthe Terra's age is 4.3 billion years old. However, radioactive dating for shergottites showed that most of these meteors are only 150 to 160 million years old. According to Werner, the discrepancy could be explained by the asteroid impact that sent these meteorites to the Earth's surface and the impact could have altered the meteorites' mineral composition which influenced their ages.

Not everyone in the scientific community agrees with the findings of the research.

"There is considerable debate about the igneous crystallization ages of shergottites," says Thomas Lapen, a geochemist from the University of Houston in Texas. "The authors did not make a convincing case to me that the young igneous crystallization ages of shergottites are invalid, "he added.

This study was published in the March 6 issue of Science Express.