Although the meteorite struck outside the Australian town of Murchison more than 50 years ago, a new study at Field University in Chicago, among others, made the discovery.

"It is the oldest solid material ever discovered, and it says something about how stars were formed in our galaxy," said Philipp Heck, the lead author of the study's publication in the journal PNAS, in a press release.

Really old star dust

The star dust, which consists of small grains of silicon carbide that is created when a star dies, remained trapped in the meteorite and was preserved there until the researchers, using advanced technology, managed to separate the dust from the meteorite. The grains are uncommon to be found, and occur only on five percent of the meteorites that fall on the earth. Of those researchers were able to separate and investigate, most were around 4.5 to 4.9 billion years old. In comparison, the sun is 4.6 billion years old, and the earth 4.5 billion years old.

Reveals star's baby boom

The oldest find was found to be around 7.5 billion years old - which is the oldest solid material ever discovered on earth. The study could also show that a kind of baby boom took place, where an unusually many stars were created during a period. Whether stars are formed at an even rate or whether something varies is a question that researchers have asked for a long time, and which now seems to have received an answer.

- Now we have clear evidence of a period of increased star formation in our galaxy seven billion years ago with samples from meteorites. It is one of the key findings in our study, says Philipp Heck in the press release.