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Astronomers Find Oldest Known Asteroids
Researchers from the University of Maryland have recently discovered three asteroids that appear to be roughly 4.55 billion years old, dating back to the formation of the Solar System. The scientists say that the asteroids have survived relatively unchanged since that time, and make good candidates for future space missions.
"'The fall of the Allende meteorite in 1969 initiated a revolution in the study of the early Solar System,' said Tim McCoy, curator of the national meteorite collection at the Smithsonian's National Museum of Natural History. 'I find it amazing that it took us nearly 40 years to collect spectra of these [CAI-rich] objects and that those spectra would now initiate another revolution, pointing us to the asteroids that record this earliest stage in the history of our Solar System.'"
It was created around the time Adam was riding his dinosaur.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.
Seriously. Don't click that link.
They blew them up with the oldest know Atari 2600.
If I remember Geology 101, that would place the Asteroid in the Precambrian time frame (if it were found on earth or if suspected it was originally sourced from earth material.)
http://nostalgia.wikipedia.org/wiki/Precambrian
I am guessing that most of the rocky Asteroids are from the same formation time period. I had thought the Earth was mostly still being formed by asteroids and comets prior to 4.5 billion years ago? It is likely to be a part of the Earth from ~4.5 Billion years ago when the Moon is said to have formed via the giant impact hypothesis by planetoid Theia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theia_(planet)
I would be impressed if they would have found the oldest unknown adstroid.
Don't fight for your country, if your country does not fight for you.
What do the models say? Does an early star have rings, like Saturn? I'd expect processes like this
- dust to lumps
- dust to rings
- lumps to sun
- lumps to planets
- rings to planets
- rings to sun
Depending on the speed of each of these factors you get different scenarios. Rings could never happen, they could disappear before the sun is created, they could be be created before , during or after planet creation. Planet creation could also start before the sun. You get the idea.
Your point is well taken - the paper's findings are not bullet proof.
But your point about the "gods of research" is disingenuous... that is unless you believe that one is better off putting their faith in intelligent designers and corporate-science-sophistry. It's true that science could be *more* conservative with declaring findings, but really it's a question of who is more credible with the facts, and more pliable when it comes to standing corrected.
Like all pain, suffering is a signal that something isn't right
There is no faith going on in the scientific community. At worst the is only trust. Those assumption on strata deposition are not religious-like any ANY way whatsoever. Firstly , if I recall correctly they were corroborated by other measurement (like radio emission measurement) secondly, if anybody came up with EVIDENCE contradicting the current supposition and theory, then stratta aging would be dropped out. Up to now , it was never the case.
You wanna religion ? Religion is trusting a little book (be it black and named bible, or be it red, or blue and speaking of thetan) and assuming this book contain the ABSOLUTE and unchanging truth, and that without evidence whatsoever. And if something contradict your religion, then that something must be wrong, not your religion. THAT , mister, is religious dogma. On the other hand scientist aren't, as a whole/at large, not dogmatic. If they were, science would still be stuck in the 18th century. You say scientific are not ready to accept change and whisper it ? Are you for real ? On the top of my head I can think of two MAJOR change which were certainly not whispered : quantum mechanic and relativity. Should i mention evolution ? That made a BIG BIG splash at the epoch. Wanna something more recent ? Look at the headlines of science.slashdot.org. You will find a plenty of those minor revision and maybe a major one.
You want us to flamebait us ? I am sorry, you don#t know what you are speaking about (science and dogma). you WERE the flamebait/troll. The worst is that at least 4 people modded you up. Now I know that a lot of people have a mindset anti science, but at least I would have hoped that geek visiting this site would be a notch above.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
248 Kessel Runs.
That link will open an infinite number of windows with porn crap and torn apart children, also lots of email messages if your email program is setup to allow mailto: Somebody must be very fucked up in his mind to even conceive something like that. What pisses me off the most is that web-browsers and operating systems seem to be entirely useless against this kind of junk. When the hell will programmers put some code so that the browser will block dozens of pop-up windows that appear at a fraction of a second intervals? Does it take a genius to think something like that? I'm actually using FireFox 3 beta 4, so far not impressed, most of my extensions don't work.
Rubbish.
this sort of impossibility twaddle is easily discredited. For example, tall buildings or arched/suspended bridges could not be erected without a scaffold or crane. But once erected those are removed. Just because there is no evidence to be found that they were there does not mean the buildings sprung into existence fully formed.
Same with sophisticated organisms.
Recently Behe's claim that the flagella motor protein could not have evolved because it's inoperable without one of it's many parts and thus has no function was shown to be wrong. SPikes used by some bacteria to penetrate others turn out to be almost identical to the motor protein assembly but with a few proteins removed. it's not a motor it's a syringe.
Bombadier beetle.
Oxidative enzymes and fizzy action are good ways to digest something in your mouth cavity. It would be no surprise if the bombadier's enzymes were developed for digestion and then later recruited for defense. Many animals regurgitate or spray digestive juices as defensive or offensive weapons. Even single celled organisms secrete highly indesructable proteases to destroy the competition. Others, like the Spike bearing ones have cannons they can shoot this from. If single celled organisms can evolve this its not a stretch to imagine a beetle pulling it off.
Giraffe.
Many animals, like diving douplhins, seals, whales pull off similar stunts at orders of magnitude greater pressure differentials. Thus not only had such mechanisms evolved while we were all sea-bred creatures, and vestigal mechanisms potentialially latent in our DNA, but the specific machanism in Giraffes is not the only way to skin the pressure cat. For example, airplane pilots who work at High-Gs know that clenching muscles can prevent vaso-dialiation consequently fainting. It's not hard to imagine that early long necked creatures could survive without this adaptation, and the means to re-evolve it was possible in DNA
Woodpeckers:
this one can be dismissed. There are lots of birds that eat tree bugs by whatever means they can dig them out. trees come in all denisities. You don't need to evolve to be a wood pecker in one go.
Rapid Canyon formation.
I happen to live on the base of a caldera. My house is perched 200 feet over a straight drop to the steep walled canyon bottom. This was carved by a combination of massive floods and slow erosion. Simmilar examples abound around the area. But the origin of the massive floods is well known too. The caldera would periodically block it's outflows and then fill with water. when these dams burst torential fllods would scour the soft volcanic ash and aleufial sands into canons that would harden to rock. Similar stories can be said about the hells canyon area.
I've seen it happen in a small way in my own life time when forest fires glazed the mountain soils turning run-off trickles into 40 mile per hour flash floods digging 10 foot channels.
You really need to not assume the first silliness someone pours in your brain is the truth.
Some drink at the fountain of knowledge. Others just gargle.