Meteorite examined by Field Museum curator has oldest stardust ever recorded

In a recent study into a meteorite that fell in Australia 50 years ago, scientists discovered that the stardust within formed 5 to 7 billion years ago, making it the oldest material ever found on earth, according to a Field Museum press release.

“This is one of the most exciting studies I’ve worked on,” Field Museum curator, associate professor at the University of Chicago, and lead author of the paper Philipp Heck said in the release. “These are the oldest solid materials ever found, and they tell us about how stars formed in our galaxy.”

The presolar grains in the meteorite are minerals formed before the sun was born, and these minerals are hard to come by, the press release states. These minerals were found in Murchison meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969 and the fragments of the meteor are crushed and made into a paste to isolate the presolar grains.

The scientists discovered that with the presolar grains in the meteorite, most were 4.6 to 4.9 billion years old, while some were older than 5.5 billion years old.