Oldest known object on Earth

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The oldest known object on Earth is a tiny speck of zircon crystal. It is the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old. Researchers in 2001 discovered that the early Earth was much cooler than previously believed based on analysis of this crystal. It is now in possession of Huntarian Museum, Glasgow.

[edit] Reference

  • "Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago" by S. A. Wilde, J. W. Valley, W. H. Peck and C. M. Graham in Nature (2001) Volume 409, pages 175-178. Entrez PubMed 11196637