Meteorite contains oldest material on Earth

Scientists have discovered the oldest known solid material on Earth in a meteorite which landed in Australia in the 1960s. The tiny specks of stardust predate our sun by up to three billion years


Murchison meteorite: New analysis of dust grains within space rock shows that some are
as much as 7.5 billion years old

Oldest dust grains known as “pre-solar” – formed in stars long before birth of our solar system

Scanning electron micrograph of pre-solar grain

8 micrometres (0.008mm)


AUSTRALIA

Murchison, Victoria
Meteorite landed in 1969


COSMIC TIMELINE (billions of years ago)

13.8 Big Bang

13.2 Formation of first galaxies

7.5 Formation of newly-found pre-solar dust

4.57 Formation of Sun

4.56 Formation of Earth

Evolution of modern humans (200,000 years ago)

14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1


Sources: BBC, Universe Today
Pictures: Janaína N. Ávila, James St. John 
© GRAPHIC NEWS