NASA is going to return an ancient Mars rock to its home planet

An incredibly old Martian relic will soon be headed back from the planet where it originated thanks to the Mars 2020 mission. The space agency is planning on taking a piece of the meteorite known as Sayh al Uhaymir (SaU008) and including it in their highly-anticipated rover adventure to the Red Planet.

The rock, which was part of a larger meteorite discovery back in 1999, is thought to have originated on Mars. A chunk of the planet is believed to have been blown off into space by an impact, and the debris found its way to Earth. Now it will play a vital role is helping to calibrate the scientific tools on board the all-new rover.