Stardust older than the Earth and sun found in Australian meteorite

Granules, shed by dying stars over 5bn years ago, are oldest known solid material on Earth

Stardust that formed more than 5bn years ago, long before the birth of the Earth and the sun, has been discovered in a meteorite that crashed down in Australia, making it the oldest known solid material on the planet.

The tiny granules of stardust, shed by ancient stars as they expired, reveal clues about how stars formed in the Milky Way. The meteorite accumulated the stardust during the billions of years it spent soaring through space before it crashed down to Earth near the town of Murchison, Australia, in 1969.