The 4.6-billion-year timeline
From the first solid grains around the young Sun to spacecraft visiting asteroids today. Choose an era to zoom in, drag or scroll along the track, and select any event for the story and links to its full page.
Deep time is hard to picture. If the whole history of the Solar System were squeezed into one day, the dinosaurs would die out about 20 minutes before midnight, and all of written history would fill the last tenth of a second.
Where events crowd together they show as dots on the line: zoom in, or select a dot to read it.
Select an event on the track to read about it here.
Every event, oldest first
76 events. For the full history of meteorite science since ancient times, see the timeline of discovery; for space missions, the mission timeline; and for the stories behind the craters, impact events and people of meteoritics.
The birth of the Solar System
The first solids, the first planetesimals and the first planets, in a little over 100 million years.
- about 4,567 million years ago
The first solids
Calcium–aluminium-rich inclusions condense from hot gas near the young Sun. Their lead–lead age, about 4,567 million years, marks the start of the Solar System.
Calcium-aluminium-rich inclusion (CAI)The Allende meteoriteHow the Solar System formedSolar System - within about a million years
Jupiter's core grows
Isotope differences between meteorites from the inner and outer Solar System suggest Jupiter's core grew very early, helping to keep the two regions apart.
How the Solar System formedSolar System - about 1 to 2 million years after the first solids
The first metal cores
Hafnium–tungsten dating of iron meteorites shows that some planetesimals had melted and grown metal cores within a million or two years.
Hafnium–tungsten datingHow an asteroid differentiatesSolar System - about 4,567 to 4,563 million years ago
Chondrules form
Millimetre-sized droplets of molten rock form in batches over about 4 million years, then are swept into the parent bodies of chondrites.
ChondruleHow chondrules formedSolar System - within about 3 million years
Vesta grows a crust
The asteroid Vesta melts and separates into core, mantle and a basalt crust: the source of the eucrites, diogenites and howardites.
VestaHED meteoritesDawnSolar System - about 4,563 million years ago
The oldest lavas
Angrite basalts such as D'Orbigny crystallise on their parent asteroid: some of the oldest volcanic rocks known.
AngriteSolar System - within about 4 million years
The gas disc clears
Magnetism recorded in early meteorites suggests the gas of the protoplanetary disc had gone within about 4 million years, so the giant planets had their gas by then.
Protoplanetary discSolar System - about 4,562 million years ago
CB chondrites in an impact plume
Chondrules of the metal-rich CB chondrites form in the plume of a large collision between planetesimals, about 5 million years after the first solids.
CB chondriteHow chondrules formedSolar System - about 4.5 billion years ago
The impact that made the Moon
A Mars-sized body strikes the young Earth; debris thrown into orbit gathers to form the Moon.
The giant impact that made the MoonApollo 11Impacts
Young Earth: the Hadean and Archean
A planet with oceans, a Moon, heavy bombardment and the first signs of life.
- about 4,430 million years ago
Zircons crystallise on Mars
Tiny zircon crystals later found in the Martian meteorite NWA 7034, Black Beauty, crystallise in the ancient Martian crust.
The NWA 7034 meteoriteSolar System - about 4,404 million years ago
The oldest piece of Earth
A zircon crystal later found in the Jack Hills of Western Australia forms, hinting that Earth already had continental crust and perhaps water.
Earth and life - about 4,091 million years ago
ALH 84001 crystallises on Mars
The rock that became the meteorite ALH 84001 forms in the Martian crust; its carbonate grains formed a little later, around 3.9 to 4 billion years ago.
The ALH 84001 meteoriteSolar System - about 4,031 million years ago
The oldest known rocks
The Acasta Gneiss of northern Canada forms: the oldest rock formation known on Earth.
Earth and life - proposed for about 4.1 to 3.8 billion years ago
A late heavy bombardment?
Apollo samples once suggested a spike in large impacts on the Moon around 3.9 billion years ago. Whether it was a spike or the tail of a slow decline is still debated.
The Late Heavy BombardmentApollo 15Impacts - about 3.9 billion years ago
The Imbrium basin forms
A huge impact blasts out the Moon's Imbrium basin, later flooded with dark lava; its debris was sampled by Apollo astronauts.
Apollo 14How an impact crater formsImpacts - about 3.5 billion years ago
Early signs of life
Layered mounds built by microbes, called stromatolites, grow in shallow water in what is now the Pilbara of Western Australia: among the oldest widely accepted signs of life.
Earth and life - about 3.26 billion years ago
The Barberton S2 impact
An asteroid perhaps 40 to 60 km across strikes the ocean; its spherule layer survives in South Africa.
The S2 impact, BarbertonImpacts
The Proterozoic
Oxygen builds up in the air, and the oldest craters still on Earth are made.
- about 2.4 billion years ago
Oxygen builds up in the air
The Great Oxidation Event: oxygen made by microbes begins to accumulate in the atmosphere for the first time.
Earth and life - about 2.23 billion years ago
Yarrabubba, the oldest crater
The impact at Yarrabubba in Western Australia makes the oldest impact structure yet dated on Earth.
Yarrabubba craterImpacts - about 2.02 billion years ago
Vredefort
The largest known impact structure on Earth forms in South Africa; erosion has since removed the crater, leaving its roots.
VredefortVredefort craterHow an impact crater formsImpacts - about 1.85 billion years ago
Sudbury
A large impact in Canada makes a basin whose melt sheet later yields some of the world's richest nickel ores.
SudburySudbury craterImpacts - about 1.3 billion years ago
Nakhlite lavas on Mars
Lava flows that will become the nakhlite meteorites cool on Mars; about 11 million years ago an impact sends pieces of them into space.
The Nakhla meteoriteHow a rock leaves Mars and reaches EarthSolar System - about 580 million years ago
Acraman
An asteroid strikes what is now South Australia, spreading a layer of debris hundreds of kilometres away.
AcramanAcraman craterImpacts
The age of animals
From the Cambrian explosion to the end of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals.
- about 539 million years ago
The Cambrian explosion
Animals with shells and skeletons appear rapidly in the fossil record: the start of the Phanerozoic eon.
Earth and life - beginning about 466 million years ago
The Ordovician meteorite rain
A large asteroid breaks up in the asteroid belt, and for millions of years L-chondrite meteorites fall on Earth far more often; fossil meteorites are found in Swedish limestone.
The Ordovician meteorite rainImpacts - about 214 million years ago
Manicouagan
An impact makes the ring-shaped Manicouagan structure in Quebec, now a reservoir visible from space.
ManicouaganManicouagan craterImpacts - 66 million years ago
Chicxulub ends the age of dinosaurs
An asteroid about 10 km across strikes Mexico; the impact winter that follows ends the age of the non-bird dinosaurs.
Chicxulub: the end of the dinosaursChicxulub craterHow an impact crater formsImpacts - about 35.7 million years ago
Popigai
A large impact in Siberia leaves a crater about 100 km across, rich in impact diamonds.
PopigaiPopigai craterImpacts - about 35.5 million years ago
Chesapeake Bay
An impact on the shallow sea floor off eastern North America makes a crater later buried beneath Chesapeake Bay.
Chesapeake BayChesapeake Bay craterImpacts - about 14.8 million years ago
The Ries
An asteroid strikes southern Germany, making the Ries crater and throwing out the green glass called moldavite.
The Ries and Steinheim impactsNördlinger Ries craterImpacts - about 2.5 million years ago
Eltanin
An asteroid lands in the deep Southern Ocean: the only known deep-ocean impact, found from debris in sea-floor cores.
EltaninImpacts - about 1 million years ago
Tissint leaves Mars
An impact on Mars launches the rock that will fall in Morocco in 2011 as the Tissint meteorite.
The Tissint meteoriteHow a rock leaves Mars and reaches EarthSolar System
The last million years
Tektites, young craters and the first people to see meteorites fall.
- about 790,000 years ago
The Australasian tektites
An impact in south-east Asia scatters glassy tektites over about a tenth of Earth's surface.
The Australasian tektite impactImpacts - about 570,000 years ago
Lonar
An impact into basalt lava in India makes a crater that now holds a salty lake.
LonarLonar craterImpacts - about 300,000 years ago
Our species appears
The oldest known fossils of Homo sapiens date from about this time, in north Africa.
Earth and life - about 120,000 years ago
Wolfe Creek
An iron meteorite makes the Wolfe Creek crater in Western Australia.
Wolfe CreekWolfe Creek craterImpacts - about 50,000 years ago
Meteor Crater
An iron asteroid tens of metres across blasts out Meteor Crater in Arizona; its fragments are the Canyon Diablo meteorite.
Meteor Crater (Barringer Crater)Barringer Crater (Meteor Crater) craterThe Canyon Diablo meteoriteImpacts
Written history
Meteorites in human hands, and the science that explained them.
- about 3200 BC
Iron beads from space
Beads hammered from meteoritic iron are buried at Gerzeh in Egypt, long before iron was smelted from ore.
In the timeline of discoveryMeteorites - about 4,200 years ago
Henbury
An iron meteoroid breaks up over central Australia and makes a field of a dozen or so small craters.
HenburyHenbury craterImpacts - about 3,500 years ago
Kaali
A meteoroid breaks up over the island of Saaremaa in Estonia and makes a crater field.
KaaliKaali craterImpacts - about 1323 BC
Tutankhamun's dagger
The pharaoh is buried with a dagger whose blade is meteoritic iron.
In the timeline of discoveryMeteorites - AD 861
Nōgata
A stone falls in Japan and is kept at a shrine: the oldest observed fall with a surviving specimen.
In the timeline of discoveryMeteorites - 7 November 1492
Ensisheim
A stone falls in Alsace and is hung in the parish church: the oldest European fall with a preserved stone.
The Ensisheim meteoriteMeteorites - 1794
Chladni: stones from space
Ernst Chladni argues that fireballs and fallen stones and irons come from space, a view most scholars then rejected.
Ernst ChladniDiscoveries - 13 December 1795
Wold Cottage
A 25 kg stone falls in Yorkshire, one of the falls that helped convince scientists.
The Wold Cottage meteoriteMeteorites - 1 January 1801
Ceres is discovered
Giuseppe Piazzi finds Ceres, the first known asteroid.
Giuseppe PiazziDiscoveries - 1802
Howard finds nickel
Edward Howard shows that fallen stones contain nickel-rich metal unlike any Earth rock.
Edward HowardDiscoveries - 26 April 1803
L'Aigle convinces science
Thousands of stones fall in Normandy; Jean-Baptiste Biot's report settles that stones fall from the sky.
The L'Aigle meteoriteJean-Baptiste BiotMeteorites - 1808
The Widmanstätten pattern
Alois von Widmanstätten reveals the crystal pattern inside iron meteorites; William Thomson had described it in 1804.
Alois von Beckh-WidmanstättenHow Widmanstätten patterns growDiscoveries - 13 November 1833
The night the stars fell
A Leonid storm over North America shows that meteors come from a radiant, launching the science of meteor showers.
Denison OlmstedHow a meteor shower formsDiscoveries - 1866
Meteors linked to comets
Giovanni Schiaparelli shows the Perseids follow the orbit of Comet Swift–Tuttle.
Giovanni SchiaparelliComet Swift–TuttleDiscoveries - 30 June 1908
Tunguska
An airburst over Siberia flattens about 2,000 square kilometres of forest.
Tunguska, 1908Impacts - 1920
Hoba is found
A farmer's plough strikes the Hoba iron in Namibia, the largest known meteorite.
The Hoba meteoriteMeteorites - 12 February 1947
Sikhote-Alin
An iron meteoroid breaks up over eastern Russia and showers tonnes of fragments.
Sikhote-Alin, 1947The Sikhote-Alin meteoriteMeteorites - 30 November 1954
A meteorite hits a person
A stone crashes through a roof in Sylacauga, Alabama, and bruises Ann Hodges.
The Sylacauga meteoriteAnn HodgesMeteorites - 1956
The age of the Earth
Clair Patterson uses lead in meteorites to date the Earth and Solar System at about 4.55 billion years.
Clair PattersonRadiometric dating and isochronsDiscoveries - 4 October 1957
The space age begins
Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite, is launched.
Missions - 7 April 1959
Příbram: a meteorite with an orbit
Cameras in Czechoslovakia photograph a fireball and its stones are found: the first meteorite with a known orbit.
Zdeněk CeplechaHow fireball cameras triangulate a fallDiscoveries - 1969
Allende, Murchison and the Moon
Allende and Murchison fall, Apollo 11 brings back Moon rock and Japanese scientists find meteorites on Antarctic ice: a turning point for the science.
The Allende meteoriteThe Murchison meteoriteApollo 11Meteorites - 1980
An impact ended the dinosaurs
Luis and Walter Alvarez and colleagues report iridium at the boundary layer and propose an asteroid impact.
Luis AlvarezWalter AlvarezChicxulub: the end of the dinosaursDiscoveries - 1983
Martian air in a meteorite
Gases trapped in the meteorite EETA 79001 match the Martian atmosphere, proving that some meteorites come from Mars.
How a rock leaves Mars and reaches EarthDiscoveries - July 1994
A comet hits Jupiter
Fragments of Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9 strike Jupiter, watched from Earth and space.
Comet Shoemaker–Levy 9Carolyn ShoemakerImpacts - 12 February 2001
Landing on an asteroid
NEAR Shoemaker touches down on Eros, the first spacecraft to land on an asteroid.
NEAR ShoemakerMissions - 15 January 2006
Comet dust returned
Stardust brings dust from Comet Wild 2 back to Earth.
StardustMissions - 7 October 2008
2008 TC3
The first asteroid spotted before it hit Earth falls over Sudan as the Almahata Sitta meteorites.
Asteroid 2008 TC3The Almahata Sitta meteoriteImpacts - 13 June 2010
Hayabusa returns
The first samples of an asteroid, from Itokawa, reach Earth.
HayabusaMissions - July 2011
Dawn reaches Vesta
The Dawn spacecraft begins orbiting Vesta, the source of the HED meteorites.
DawnMissions - 15 February 2013
Chelyabinsk
A 20-metre asteroid explodes over Russia; the shock wave injures about 1,500 people.
Chelyabinsk, 2013The Chelyabinsk meteoriteImpacts - 12 November 2014
Philae lands on a comet
Rosetta's lander touches down on Comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko.
Rosetta and PhilaeComet 67P/Churyumov–GerasimenkoMissions - October 2017
A visitor from another star
ʻOumuamua, the first known interstellar object, is discovered passing through the Solar System.
'Oumuamua, the first interstellar visitorDiscoveries - December 2020
Ryugu and Moon samples
Hayabusa2 returns samples of the asteroid Ryugu, and Chang'e 5 brings back the first new Moon rock since 1976.
Hayabusa2Chang'e 5Missions - 28 February 2021
Winchcombe
A carbonaceous chondrite falls in Gloucestershire, tracked by camera networks and found on a driveway.
The Winchcombe meteoriteHow fireball cameras triangulate a fallMeteorites - 26 September 2022
DART moves an asteroid moon
DART strikes Dimorphos and shortens its orbit around Didymos by about 33 minutes.
DARTHow DART changed an asteroid's orbitMissions - 24 September 2023
Bennu samples land
OSIRIS-REx drops its capsule of asteroid Bennu in Utah.
OSIRIS-RExMissions - June 2024
Rock from the Moon's far side
Chang'e 6 returns the first samples from the far side of the Moon.
Chang'e 6Missions - 7 October 2024
Hera sets off
ESA's Hera launches to study the aftermath of DART at Didymos, which it is due to reach in late 2026.
HeraMissions