A meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969 contains grains of stardust up to 7 billion years old — material that existed billions of years before Earth formed and long before the Sun was born. The Field Museum in Chicago still holds the largest portion of the meteorite today.

A meteorite that fell in Australia in 1969 contains grains of stardust up to 7 billion years old — material that existed billions of years before Earth formed and long before the Sun was born. The Field Museum in Chicago still holds the largest portion of the meteorite today.

On the morning of 28 September 1969, a bright fireball broke apart above Murchison in Victoria, Australia. Dark stones fell across fields and roads, and residents began collecting them before weather and soil could substantially alter the material. More than 100 kilograms were eventually recovered. The find became one of the most intensively studied meteorites in history, partly because it was large, fresh and unusually rich in primitive materia…