Earth is much younger than previously thought, but Young Earth Creationists still off by 4.5 billion years.

Differences in the isotopic values of Earth tungsten and that taken from the meteorites was able to provide the researchers with information about how long accretion took.

Dr Rudge and his colleagues used computer models to calculate how the Earth could have formed to match the levels of isotope decay found in the planet's mantle.

They showed that the Earth almost certainly could not have formed within 30 million years but instead grew very quickly, reaching two-thirds of its size within about 10 to 40 million years.

The accretion process then slowed and took up to another 70 million years to complete.

“If correct, that would mean the Earth was about 100 million years in the making altogether,” said Dr Rudge said.

“We estimate that makes it about 4.467 billion years old – a mere youngster compared with the 4.537 billion-year-old planet we had previously imagined.”