Solar System Date of Birth Determined

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "UC Davis researchers have dated the earliest step in the formation of the solar system — when microscopic interstellar dust coalesced into mountain-sized chunks of rock — to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years. In the second stage, mountain-sized masses grew quickly into about 20 Mars-sized planets and, in the third and final stage, these small planets smashed into each other in a series of giant collisions that left the planets we know today. The dates of these intermediary stages are well established. The article abstract is available from Astrophysical Journal Letters."

Comments

Profound...(All we are is dust in the wind)

[nebaz]

To think that the span of a human life is at best about 1/250 millionth of that cycle. Light from distant stars does eventually get here, it just happens on timescales that are beyond imagination.
Such a shame that we occupy such a small blink in the process, and can't witness cosmic events on any larger a level.

Re:Profound...(All we are is dust in the wind)

[Anonymous Coward]

Nah, you have it backwards. It is not a shame that our lives are short. I find it inspiring that we have come so far despite this shortness, and we have built instruments that let us actually see all those cosmic events, and even put them in perspective ;)

Re:Margin of Error

[CensorshipDonkey]

-- to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years. And i was born 22 years ago, within a range of 10 years Pretty big error (almost 50%)

Incorrect. 2 million years is less than 0.05% of 4.5 billion years. Pretty damn precise, relatively speaking. Read the units on the text you cited.

4,568 million years divided by 7 days

[JustCallMeRich]

Can we break those intermediate steps into seven phases or so and declare each of those a "day", get a copy to the Pope, and settle this whole religion versus science mess now? Or at least build some bridges for the Bible folks and the Science folks to agree to something that makes a little more sense?

Re:4,568 million years divided by 7 days

[Rude Turnip]

Psst...it's all the offshoots (I'm looking at you, Baptists) that are causing problems. The Catholic church is rather keen on astronomy an evolution nowadays. Not so much on the gays and condoms, but it's a start.

Re:4,568 million years divided by 7 days

[Anonymous Coward]

One man says "it is right to protect the children." The other says "it is right to kill three a day." We should clearly compromise - no more then one child a day, two on weekends!

But seriously. No, we can't. We don't compromise between a fiction and hard fact just because lots of people happen to believe the fiction.

Re:So many gifts..!

[xPsi]

...to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years.

Similarly, I've discovered my birthday to be defined as subsequent to July.
At a glance it might seem like a crude measurement, but its really about 4 parts in 10000, which is really quite good. This would be like knowing your birthday to within 4 hours during the year (better than I know my own birthday off the top of my head, to be honest).

Give him a BREAK!

[gardyloo]

Yeesh, you people are so negative! The hint is right there in his username!

Re:So many gifts..!

[powerlinekid]

Honestly I think the problem is in the way it was expressed. The margin of error looks better if they had stated:
"...to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2 million years"
or
"...to 4,568,000,000 years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years"

Its easier to quickly compare the numbers against each other that way.

Genesis 2:2

[4D6963]

to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years

And on the seven hundred fifty-nine million seven hundred three thousand seven hundred seventy-third day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seven hundred fifty-nine million seven hundred three thousand seven hundred seventy-third day from all his work which he had made.