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The Oldest Thing Ever?

Call it much ado about almost nothing.

To create buzz about an otherwise arcane subject, the University of Wisconsin-Madison showed off a tiny speck of zircon crystal believed to be the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old.
Ref. CNN.com

Ever Oldest The

I wasn't able to find this article on cnn.com. However, I must say that 4.4 billion years old is along time to be around. Zircon has been used to fool Jewelers into thinking its a diamond, but it is not the same as cubic zirconia. I took the liberty of looking up some information on zircon. It appears that nice specimens of it are fairly rare. But if its been on earth that long, then I'm not surprised.
https://mineral.galleries.com/minerals/sili...rcon/zircon.htm

The Oldest Thing Ever? UFO & Writing Art Education Sciences

I'm sure there are plenty of other specimens that are or was around a lot longer than that certain specimen but no one will ever know unless they try to look or by some strange accident find something older. I guess only time will tell.

Ever Oldest The

4.4 bn year old zircon reveals life on Earth appeared earlier than believed:

Ancient zircon crystals, discovered in Australia in 2001, have now been proved to be our planet's oldest known substance. The 4.4 billion-year-old gem offers clues that Earth could have become habitable much earlier than previously believed. Ref. Source 3