How old is Jupiter? Meteorite 'raindrops' help scientists pin down gas giant's age

In some cases, to learn more about our solar system, all we have to do is look at evidence found on Earth.

Researchers from Japan's Nagoya University and the Italian National Institute for Astrophysics (INAF) have determined how mysterious molten "raindrops" in meteorites formed — and used that information to date Jupiter's formation.

The raindrops are called chondrules. They're strange spherical droplets of molten rock just 0.1 to 0.2 millimeters wide, found in a specific type of meteorite called a chondrite. Until now, no one knew how their round shape formed.

It all began a long, long time ago, not in a galaxy far, far away, but in our very own Milky Way. In the chaotic environment of our young solar system, small rocky and icy bodies called planetesimals crashed into one another at