Stardust grains are contained within meteorites, from which they are extracted in terrestrial laboratories. Stardust was a component of the dust in the interstellar medium before its incorporation into meteorites. The meteorites have stored those stardust grains ever since the meteorites first assembled within the planetary accretion disk more than four billion years ago. Each stardust grain existed before the Earth was formed - we think that makes these sweet little stud earrings extra special.