This Old Home(Planet Earth)

     I know there are people with firmly held religious beliefs that the Earth is just 6,000 years old. 
     But scientists continue to date stuff on it as being older. A lot older. 
     For example, this story about the dating of a piece of crystal as being older. 4.4 billion years old.

Like the rest of the solar system, scientists say, Earth formed about 4.567 billion years ago.
One theory suggests that in the frenzy of those early days 4.5 billion to 4.4 billion years ago, Earth was struck by an object the size of Mars. The impact altered Earth's tilt and caused a chunk of the planet to vaporize into space. (Some of that dust later became the moon).
The blow also caused the rest of Earth to be covered in a hot magma ocean. This is called the Hadean period.
Scientists were not sure how long the Hadean period lasted, but this ancient piece of zircon suggests the Earth crust had started to cool and form by 4.4 billion years ago.
"What we can say is that 4.4 billion years ago, the continental crust had started for form," Valley said, "and that the real Hadean period only lasted for a very short time. By 4.4 billion years, it was over."

Read the entire L.A. Times story here.