Age of the earth and universe?

Question

Maybe it's a stupid question, but I would like to know the answer anyway.

From what I've read, the earth is about 4.5 billion years old, while the universe is 13-20 billion years old.

My basic understanding of the big bang theory is that all the matter of the universe was compacted and at some point it exploded and was disbursed. Correct?

If that is correct, why is the earth so much younger than the universe? Shouldn't the material of the earth be the same age as the rest of the material in the universe?

What exactly do they mean by the age of the earth? The age of the matter? The time that it formed into a sphere? What? Again, from what I've read, the material of the earth (rocks, etc) are carbon-dated to about 3-4 billion years old.

Anyway, why the discrepancy between the age of the earth and universe?

Thanks for helping. Sorry if it's a 9th grade science question.

Hi Blondie. Thanks. I'm a chick, lol.

And to the person who said it was a good 9th grade question, thank you but unfortunately I've been out of 9th grade for about 20 years. ;)

Answer 1

It's a GOOD 9th grade science question. It's not a question of the age of the material of the earth, it is a question of when the earth as we know it was formed.

It took some time after the big-bang for stars to form. Once stars are formed, they last for about 10 billion years and then go kerplooey as either a nova, supernova. So, it appears that the sun is sort of a "second generation" star.

Now, the plot thickened. After the sun was formed, it appears that it was side-swiped by a smaller star around 5 billion years ago. The dynamics of this interaction led to shearing off material from both stars, which wound up circling around the sun. It was this material that coalesced into planets, satellites of planets, comets, asteroids, and strange object that hang around in the Oort Zone beyone Neptune. However, this process took some time, and occasionally there were some big bumps between matter that gathered in proto-planets. The time we consider the age of the earth is when the earth's surface was cool enough to form a solid mantle and the big bumps died down to a dull roar.

For more information, watch "The Universe" on the History Channel. There are lots of reruns and this is discussed in one of the episodes.

Answer 2

When the Universe first cooled enough for matter to form, it was about 25% helium and 75% hydrogen. Any other material lighter than Iron is formed during a Star's life by fusion. All other material heavier than Iron is formed during the end of a Star's life in Supernova explosions. When scientist say the Earth is formed about 4.5 billion years ago, they are talking about this planet that is called Earth, not the material that Earth is formed out of. The material that Earth is formed out of is probably a collection of stuff of various ages.

Answer 3

3-4 billion years ago the earth formed out of material left over from the formation of the sun.

Technically, yes, all elementary particles in the universe are the same age, 13.7 billion years old. But that's unrelated to the first point.

Answer 4

The first stars that formed couldn't have any rocky planets like Earth because there weren't any elements heavier than lithium formed in the big bang. It took several generations of stars to create the concentration of heavy elements we see in our Sun and its planets.

The age given for the Earth is dated from the time the planet actually formed, though the atoms that form it may be much older. We can only measure the age of minerals in solid form, as we depend on the accumulation of radioactive decay products in rocks to give us their age. This "clock" is reset when minerals are melted, so most of what we see on Earth measures much younger than 4.5 billion years. The age estimate takes into account the oldest meteorites seen, based on the assumption that the entire solar system formed at the same time. The age calculated for the Earth and planets from radioisotope dating is consistent with age estimates of the Sun based on stellar evolution theory, also.

It is incorrect to refer to these measurements as carbon dating. Carbon dating applies to organic material, and can only measure back about 50,000 years.

Solar systems are still being formed now, and should continue to form for hundreds of billions of years, so stars and planets can be much younger than the universe.

Answer 5

Your guess is essentially correct. The roughtly 4 billion year old date given to earth is when it formed. Before that, our solar system was just a whole lot of dust and other stuff.

The fact that the earth has many heavier elements in it (all the metals, etc.) means that it, and us, have gone through a cycle of being part of a star before. (The star went supernova or was otherwise destroyed.)

Radiometric dating (carbon dating is just one example) is a way to tell when matter changes from one state to another. Carbon dating can help us determine when previously living tissue died. Other elements can determine other transitions, for instance when certain kinds of rock solidify from lava. That's the kind of thing scientists look at to data a planet, the mood, etc.

Answer 6

The Big Bang was NOT an explosion as is commonly misunderstood. It was, and is, an expansion of space itself.

The age of the Earth is taken from the time it coalesced from the protosolar system dust. Yes, the material was always present, just not assembled. Kind of why we say you are such and such age and not 13 billion years old.

The link below can explain how the Earth's age is dated.

Answer 7

NO,NO, The bible does not say something with regard to the earth being 5000 years old. All scholars and theologians be attentive to that between verse one and verse 2 interior the 1st financial ruin of Genesis that probable tens of millions of years went via. What they do have confidence is that that's approximately very almost 6000 years considering Adam& Eve till now.

Answer 8

its older than you i can tell you that.... its liike 13 billion years old and its not an explosion, just a big burst of matter, energy, and possibly spacetime. the age of the earth is when there was that whole big sphere making and when the earth was gathered up from all that dusty matter then that is when people started to calculate the age:P

Answer 9

anything heavier than hydrogen (and maybe helium, I forget) was made inside stars thru the universe's history. So the lead, uranium, carbon, gold, etc... of the earth was scattered fromsupernovae thru the eons.

Answer 10

gee, guy u come up w/ some of the neatest of question.. i am still waiting on the ans to ur last one.. i like cattbarf's ans so far..
i don't think i could get this correct even if it was a multiple choice.. really heavy..