In a JSC clean room two days later, the grey rock was opened with a hammer. Scientists found blue and purple halite inside.
Halite is a salt crystal, similar to table salt.
These are the largest halite crystals ever seen by scientists in any extraterrestrial material. The presence of water inside the crystals was confirmed using several forms of scientific analysis. The crystals have turned blue and purple by radiation, and are estimated to be 4.5 billion years old. That means that the trapped water could predate the sun and planets in our Solar System. According to the authors, the study of this meteorite has resulted in a finding that a brine solution was present when the Solar System was formed.