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A meteorite that crashed in Australia in 1969 contains interstellar particles that are several billion years older than the sun, making it the oldest material ever found. The Murchison meteorite is unique because it carried the dust intact, and researchers had to dissolve some material to reveal “presolar grains” to determine the age of the dust. Earth witnesses dozens of meteor showers each year, and more than 6,000 meteors large enough to reach the ground pass through Earth’s atmosphere each year.
Earth is about 4.54 billion years old, but thanks to a unique meteorite, there are particles on this planet that have been around since before anything in our solar system, even the sun, was born.
On September 28, 1969, a huge meteor tore through the earth’s atmosphere and crashed near the town of Murchison in the Australian state of Victoria. Recent scientific analysis has determined that the 220-pound (100 kg) meteorite contains interstellar particles left over from when distant stars went extinct about 7 billion years ago.
The particles are several billion years older than the sun, which is estimated to be 4.6 billion years old. This makes stardust from the Murchison meteorite the oldest material ever found.
Philipp Heck, the lead author of the study at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, said the Murchison meteorite is unique because it carried the dust intact. In most cases, similar types of dust would be burned up during natural planetary processes, including the formation of the Earth.
To determine the age of the dust inside the Murchison meteorite, the researchers had to use acid to dissolve some material to reveal so-called “presolar grains”. “I always liken it to burning the haystack to find the needle,” Heck said.
More on meteors:
Earth witnesses dozens of meteor showers each year, including the August Perseids, first observed about 2,000 years ago.
A “fireball” is a meteor that is at least as bright as the planet Venus when observed in the morning or evening sky.
More than 6,000 meteors large enough to reach the ground pass through Earth’s atmosphere each year.
