Scientists have found the oldest solid particles on Earth. They are older than the sun!

The most common carrier of dust from the protoplanetary disk that surrounded the Sun in the early stages

formations are chondrites - asteroids from the early Solar System, which are a mixture of small particles of the protosolar nebula, ice and various inclusions.

Such meteorites fall relatively often onEarth, but upon entering the atmosphere they either burn up or overheat. The age of the vast majority of such objects is from 4.6 to 4.5 billion years.

However, there are exceptions - theoreticalmodels predict the existence of chondrites, whose age is much greater. In addition to small particles and dust, they include solid particles of matter that was contained in interstellar gas even before the formation of the Sun.

If the existence of such chondritis has been proven,then the probability that particles of matter from an ancient interplanetary gas will reach the Earth in an untouched form was extremely small. However, now scientists have managed to find just such particles.

International group of researchersanalyzed fragments of the Murchison meteorite, which fell in Australia in 1969, and found insoluble particles of silicon carbide up to eight micrometers in size. After this, scientists established their age - about 5.5 billion years.

These are the oldest solid materials ever found, and they tell us how stars formed in our galaxy.

Philipp Heck, lead author of the study

Earlier, HiTech tells how the Hayabusa mission was carried out, which is supposed to deliver equally ancient particles to the Earth, and what contribution it can make to the development of astronomy.