Abstract
‘Cosmic stopped clocks’ explains how, using isotopes that are the daughters of isotopes that no longer exist, isotope geochemistry has been able to assemble a chronology for the formation and growth of the Solar System and the Earth. Our Solar System began around 4.5 billion years ago. Within a few million years, the earliest solid minerals crystallized. After about ten million years, small astronomical bodies had formed and, within 100 million years, the planets had not only formed but had differentiated into bodies fundamentally similar to the Earth we live on.
