Beryllium-10 undergoes radioactive decay really slowly, meaning it gradually breaks down over millions of years as it sits in the rocks. As beryllium-10 decays over time, its concentration ...

That means any beryllium-10 found on Earth today was created long after the solar system formed. However, in some meteorites, scientists find boron-10, a decay product of beryllium-10.

To date them, the team used a technique called accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) at the Helmholtz-Zentrum Dresden-Rossendorf (HZDR). This method can distinguish beryllium-10 from its decay product, ...