The study marks the first time that the Yarrabubba crater has been precisely dated, at 2.229 billion years old, and means it is 200 million years older than any similar site known on Earth.

The revelation also raises the intriguing possibility that the massive impact could have significantly altered the Earth’s climate, helping end a period of global “deep freeze”.

Scientists had long suspected that Yarrabubba, in a remote part of the outback, dated back several billion years.

Read more: phys.org