What if Earth’s story wasn’t written only beneath our feet, but also in the stars above?

New research from Curtin University reveals that the Milky Way itself may have shaped our planet’s crust. Scientists studied ancient zircon crystals — tiny minerals that act like time capsules of Earth’s early history.

When they compared the chemical changes inside these crystals with maps of our galaxy, they found an astonishing pattern: the changes match the times when our solar system passed through the Milky Way’s spiral arms.

In these crowded regions, gravitational forces can disturb distant comets, sending some on collision courses with Earth. Those impacts released immense energy, melting parts of the surface and creating new, complex magmas. In watery environments, such events may even have helped set the stage for life.

This means Earth’s geology cannot be explained in isolation. It is tied to the galaxy itself. Our continents, oceans, and perhaps even life may carry the fingerprints of the Milky Way.

Earth’s history isn’t just planetary — it’s galactic.