A chemical analysis of rare and ancient zircon crystals taken from the remote and foreboding Jack Hills of Western Australia is causing scientists to reevaluate their assumptions about when the first fresh water reached the surface of the Earth. This new study, which has just been published in Nature Geoscience, showed that these primordial rocks had absorbed fresh water delivered to the Earth by meteors or other heavenly bodies approximately four billion years ago, or 500 million years earlier than previous estimates. This is just a few hundred million years after the Earth first coalesced into a solid mass.  Read moreSection: NewsScience & SpaceHuman OriginsScienceRead Later