- #1
Wallis
- 18
- 0
For years I have accepted the common wisdom that "the elements making up the Earth are 4.5 bn years old, therefore the Earth is 4.5 bn years old."
But, upon thinking on this during Professor Brian Cox's excellent program about the evolution of things and the fact that the solar system is possibly 3rd generation matter, I realized that the 4.5 bn year Solar System timescale is a massive mistake. The elements were all created inside the supernova that created the dust cloud from which the solar system condensed. This means that the Solar System is hugely younger than the traditional 4.5 bn year life. The supernova not only had to happen and disperse, but condensation and coellescence time followed by accretion and planetary formation had to happen, all within that 4.5 bn year time-frame.
Therefore the Earth and the Solar System must be much younger than 4.5 bn years, perhaps only hundreds of millions of years. What say you all?
But, upon thinking on this during Professor Brian Cox's excellent program about the evolution of things and the fact that the solar system is possibly 3rd generation matter, I realized that the 4.5 bn year Solar System timescale is a massive mistake. The elements were all created inside the supernova that created the dust cloud from which the solar system condensed. This means that the Solar System is hugely younger than the traditional 4.5 bn year life. The supernova not only had to happen and disperse, but condensation and coellescence time followed by accretion and planetary formation had to happen, all within that 4.5 bn year time-frame.
Therefore the Earth and the Solar System must be much younger than 4.5 bn years, perhaps only hundreds of millions of years. What say you all?