The Solar System condensed out of a vast cloud of gas, seeded with heavier elements by exploding stars, somewhere between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years ago. That’s enough detail for most purposes, but if you want a more precise age, it’s good to consider what part of the Solar System you are referring to. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

The Earth is somewhere between 4.5 and 4.6 billion years old. However, there are parts of the Solar System that are older than that – indeed one such piece that came through the roof of a Georgia house recently.

If we were under any illusions that the Solar System formed all at once, it would have been shattered once we gained the capacity to observe very young star systems whose planets

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