Oldest Planet Ever Discovered

crymeph0 writes "NASA has found the oldest known planet in a globular star cluster in the constellation Scorpius. At 13.7 billion years old, it's just slighly (~1 billion years) younger than the universe itself. Get more info from HubbleSite"

Comments

Re:Heavy elements

[Surak]

almost certainly formed in a low metallicity environment, that might be difficult in this case

'Almost certainly'? I love how astrophysists base their hypotheses on theories that are so far from being conclusively proven that it's ridiculous.

First off, how do we know that the Universe is 13 billion years (or whatever?) We don't. How do we know given that this planet is 1 billion years younger? We don't. More importantly, How do we know that the Universe has a finite existence? We don't.

If the Universe's existence *is* finite, what was there before the Universe? How did the Universe form? "Big bang"? And this happened how? Remember, there was no Universe, so there was nothing to make a big bang!

It's all predicated on silly little assumptions that are based on no credible, reliable information. Just assumptions on top of assumptions. And then purported to be 'fact'.

That's the problem with much of the scientific community -- too closed-minded.

Re:Heavy elements

[Surak]

Was it not purported as fact that the universe is x billion years old? That's what the article said.

That 'fact' is based on the big bang theory. As such, it cannot be a 'fact'.

If the Universe is *infinite* rather than *finite* then the whole big bang theory, and everything that hangs off of it, including the purported age of the universe, and for that matter, the purported age of this particular planet is entirely nonsensical.

Nobody ever said there was nothing to *make* a big bang.

Everything that exists is a part of the Universe. If the Universe was created in a Big Bang, then everything in the Universe wasn't here when that Big Bang occurred because it didn't exist yet. Right? So where did this Big Bang occur? And what caused it? Clearly NOT in the Universe.

It's the whole chicken and the egg thing.

My theory is that God is 13.7 billion+1 year old

[follower_of_christ]

The discovery, based on measurements by the Hubble Space Telescope, challenged scientists to rethink theories of how, when and where planets form. It is tantalizing evidence, astronomers said, that planets began appearing billions of years earlier than previously thought and so may be more abundant.

It appears to have formed 12.7 billion years ago, within a billion years of the origin of the universe in the theorized Big Bang.

Dr. Alan P. Boss, a theoretical astrophysicist at the Carnegie Institution in Washington, who was not involved in the research, called the discovery a "stunning revelation" that will force scientists to revise their ideas of planetary formation.
Does that mean he's not a real astrophysicist? Does it mean that scientists who claim their ideas as fact have to reinvent their facts? I wonder if the ever changing face of science has caused disbelief in absolute truth.

RE: My subject line- I'll change my theory when theoretical scientists retheorize the age of the universe to be a function of the age of God + 1 year that is.

2 b-b-b-billion miles?

[SillySlashdotName]

The momentum carried with this matter caused the neutron star to "spin-up" and re-awaken as a millisecond pulsar. Meanwhile, the planet continued on its leisurely orbit at a distance of about 2 billion miles from the pair (approximately the same distance Uranus is from our Sun).

Must be that goats.cx guy, My anus is only about 93,000,000 miles from the sun...