A rocky stretch in Western Australia's Pilbara, near Earth's earliest-confirmed lifeforms, was hit by a meteorite about 3.5 billion years ago.

Researchers in Western Australia’s Pilbara region have discovered the world’s oldest known meteorite impact crater, pushing back the previous record by more than one billion years.

It was a respectable tenure, but the world’s oldest known meteorite site is no longer western Australia’s 2.2 billion-year-old, 43-mile-wide Yarrabubba crater. Researchers at Curtin University and the Geological Survey of Western Australia (GSWA) say the new recordholder is located about 660 miles north in the country’s Pilbara region.

Researchers have discovered the oldest meteorite impact crater known to science in Western Australia’s Pilbara region. The feature is more than one billion years older than the previous first-place contender,

We have discovered the oldest meteorite impact crater on Earth, in the very heart of the Pilbara region of Western Australia.

Curtin University researchers have discovered the world's oldest known meteorite impact crater, which could significantly redefine our understanding of the origins of life and how our planet was shaped.

Planets and moons during the early Solar System were pelleted by asteroids a lot more than they are today. We can see the evidence of these impacts on the Moon, but the geological traces on our planet have been erased by erosion and plate tectonics.