As Henry Reich describes in the video above , the process of scientifically estimating the age of the Earth revolves around, essentially, finding the oldest piece of the planet we can, then figuring out how old that piece is. Finding super old rocks is conceptually straightforward, but practically difficult. The processes of plate tectonics mean that the Earth is constantly recycling its rock, breaking it down into magma in the interior before pumping it back up to the surface once more.
But old rocks do exist, says Reich, and the oldest rock we know is a tiny piece of zircon found in western Australia. The process of figuring out a rock's age often falls to the scientific techniques of radiometric dating , the most famous of which is radiocarbon dating. This process focuses on the ratio between the number of carbon and carbon isotopes in any once-living being: that ratio indicates how long it's been since that being was alive.
Galaxies are not holding still in space, nor are they moving randomly. Some galaxies are moving towards their neighbors, attracted by their mutual gravity.
But the biggest pattern we see is that galaxies are moving apart from one another. This motion apart is not all at the same speed; instead it follows a pattern where galaxies that are further apart are moving more quickly.
This particular pattern indicates the whole universe is expanding. To see why, consider a loaf of raisin bread. The raisins are like galaxies and the dough is like the fabric of space in the universe. As the dough rises, it carries the raisins along, pulling them apart from each other.
Raisins that started out on opposite sides of the loaf will be a few inches farther apart after the dough rises, while raisins that started out near each other may only move half an inch. So, the speed of their motion is proportional to the separation between them.
In the same way, the space of the universe pulls galaxies further apart as the universe expands. When a galaxy is carried away by the expansion of space, its light waves are stretched out, making it appear redder. From the measurements of many galaxies, astronomers can accurately measure the expansion rate of the universe as a whole.
In the past the galaxies must have been closer together, and in the distant past they would have been packed together in a tiny point. If we assume that the expansion rate is constant over time, the age for the universe as a whole is about 10 billion years. However, astronomers have been working over the last 20 years to determine how the expansion rate changes with time.
We now know that early in the universe the expansion was slowing down, but now it is speeding up. Using careful measurements of this change in expansion rate, the age of the universe is now known quite precisely to be Many different and complementary scientific measurements have established with near certainty that the universe and the Earth are billions of years old. Layers in glaciers show a history much longer than 10, years, and radiometric dating places the formation of the Earth at 4.
Light from galaxies is reaching us billions of years after it left, and the expansion rate of the universe dates its age to These are just a sampling of the types of evidence for the great age of the Earth and the universe; see the resources below for more.
Join us to receive the latest articles, podcasts, videos, and more, and help us show how science and faith work hand in hand. Is either side right? The seven-day pattern in Genesis 1 is a literary device that serves the theological purposes of the author, rather than revealing information about the chronology of natural history. The story of the Genesis Rock reminds us of how biblical and scientific accounts, despite their different purviews and purposes, remain inexorably linked in our understanding of origins.
The movie Is Genesis History? One really powerful piece of evidence for the old age of the universe consists of the leftovers of dwarf galaxies that were consumed by our Milky Way a long time ago. Over the past century astronomers have studied planets, stars, and galaxies and have found many strands of evidence that the universe is billions of years old.
The Hawaiian Islands offer a fascinating natural laboratory to test young earth and old earth models, including the reliability of radiometric dating. Both models have clear expectations that can be compared with what we actually find in nature, and only one model fits the evidence.
Five scientific evidences that show the impossibility of a single flood carving the Grand Canyon. Learn about three methods scientists have used to determine the age of the Earth: tree rings, lake varves, and radiometric dating.
Introduction Astronomers and geologists have determined that the universe and Earth are billions of years old. Ratios of different radioactive isotopes present in samples are measured to estimate its age. There are different kinds of radiometric dating that use different isotopes, including radiocarbon, lead-lead and uranium-lead dating.
This technique was developed in the early 20th century and has since then has been constantly finetuned. Through this technique, meteorites — bits of rock that have broken off from asteroids or comets in space and fallen to Earth — can be dated.
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