Earth is about 4.6 Billion years old. That is pretty amazing. It's also (for me personally) really cool, because I have been meaning to share some of my personal knowledge about our Universe, the Big Bang and the age of our solar system for a while now. I like to learn more as I'm doing a lot of personal study, not registered anywhere at the moment, though I am tempted! But I digress...
The topic is the age of our wonderful planet; 4.6 Billion years or about 4.5 billions of years old, according to some less recent estimates (in my previous Google search).
I am looking now, at my TV screen, which is displaying the same search (how old is the earth) and there is a big picture of the earth's land masses, continents in dark and lighter green hues, yellow and brownish hues, and the water bodies that surround them, which are the oceans and seas, etc. Up towards the top of that map is the polar icecap, or the Arctic. And another white landmass (actually ice) which is the South polar ice cap. My memories of high school geography, and other science based learning are really fuzzy; but I'll do my best to explain what this blog post is about.
There is one big number on this page, 4.543 billion years, in big black letters on a white background, to the left of the pictorial (map). And a little below that are three other numbers beside three little blue words, probably links, that say Milky Way (13.21By) Moon (4.53By) and Mars (4.503By). Right off the bat, we can see that the ages of the planet Earth, our Moon and Mars, one of our nearest planetary neighbors, is close to the same age as our Sun.
I studied one university course in Astronomy and did quite well (not exceptional or anything).
I learned a lot, like the fact that most of the time we would be looking at a man made sky in our classroom (it had reclining seats, to help for comfortable viewing of the planet dome's starry sky and made for easier learning and retention of critical Astronomical details) I felt uncomfortable the first time, leaning back (like at the dentist my first time). But quickly one gets accustomed to the dark and the amazing detailed scenes, which were directed by the professor of Astronomy 101. The path our planet takes around the sun is an ellipses ("elliptical" orbit). This accounts for the variance in weather and temperatures around the world, and the four seasons, something not known by many people, who nonetheless can benefit from a romantic evening of star gazing as much as the next (astronomy geek) guy (or gal).
The Universe is much older than the planets or our solar system.
Today I was reminded of this when I read up on the age of the Sun. It is said that our sun is a middle aged star! I started wondering then and there, if the sun is middle aged, that must mean there are other suns that are older or younger than our Sun.
Just now I was reading something about the sun being a "white dwarf". Some of the terminology definitely rings a bell for me.
What is the point of all this?
The point is that this solar system (in the milky way galaxy) is much younger than the Universe.
Why is it younger?
Even from a scientific perspective, isn't it a really puzzling question?
Atheists in particular believe that a young earth is something all theists have to believe in, but that isn't true. The Quran and therefore Muslims doesn't give an age for the earth at all. It mentioned stages of creation for the earth like there were stages of creation for other 'life'. [E.g. embryology in the Quran]. But this doesn't even come close to the confusion for us (as thinking and reasoning beings) when confronted with the fact that nothing in our solar system is close to 14 Billion years old.
How do scientists explain this apparent mystery?
The International Planetarium Society, Inc. is a good resource to begin your personal study into this fascinating question.
I believe in the Big Bang theory and the age of the Universe must be very much older than our own solar system. I just don't have proof from any scripture or the Quran yet that has led me to this conclusion; I would like a more solid foundation for this belief.
Now we have many scientists or pseudo scientists who, I assume from some of the cyber buzz, no longer believe in the Big Bang theory.
It remains to be seen what science will turn up in the future about this important question.
There are White Dwarfs or suns which are 10 billion years old, the oldest in the Universe. By measuring the age of such stars, we know that the Universe is billions of years older than that, about 4 By older, according to scientists who have studied the question.
The Muslims' holy book alludes to the possibility of other planets like ours, e.g. "seven earths". There might well be life around a distant star, with a planet like ours which supports life.
The topic is the age of our wonderful planet; 4.6 Billion years or about 4.5 billions of years old, according to some less recent estimates (in my previous Google search).
I am looking now, at my TV screen, which is displaying the same search (how old is the earth) and there is a big picture of the earth's land masses, continents in dark and lighter green hues, yellow and brownish hues, and the water bodies that surround them, which are the oceans and seas, etc. Up towards the top of that map is the polar icecap, or the Arctic. And another white landmass (actually ice) which is the South polar ice cap. My memories of high school geography, and other science based learning are really fuzzy; but I'll do my best to explain what this blog post is about.
There is one big number on this page, 4.543 billion years, in big black letters on a white background, to the left of the pictorial (map). And a little below that are three other numbers beside three little blue words, probably links, that say Milky Way (13.21By) Moon (4.53By) and Mars (4.503By). Right off the bat, we can see that the ages of the planet Earth, our Moon and Mars, one of our nearest planetary neighbors, is close to the same age as our Sun.
I studied one university course in Astronomy and did quite well (not exceptional or anything).
I learned a lot, like the fact that most of the time we would be looking at a man made sky in our classroom (it had reclining seats, to help for comfortable viewing of the planet dome's starry sky and made for easier learning and retention of critical Astronomical details) I felt uncomfortable the first time, leaning back (like at the dentist my first time). But quickly one gets accustomed to the dark and the amazing detailed scenes, which were directed by the professor of Astronomy 101. The path our planet takes around the sun is an ellipses ("elliptical" orbit). This accounts for the variance in weather and temperatures around the world, and the four seasons, something not known by many people, who nonetheless can benefit from a romantic evening of star gazing as much as the next (astronomy geek) guy (or gal).
The Universe is much older than the planets or our solar system.
Today I was reminded of this when I read up on the age of the Sun. It is said that our sun is a middle aged star! I started wondering then and there, if the sun is middle aged, that must mean there are other suns that are older or younger than our Sun.
Just now I was reading something about the sun being a "white dwarf". Some of the terminology definitely rings a bell for me.
What is the point of all this?
The point is that this solar system (in the milky way galaxy) is much younger than the Universe.
Why is it younger?
Even from a scientific perspective, isn't it a really puzzling question?
Atheists in particular believe that a young earth is something all theists have to believe in, but that isn't true. The Quran and therefore Muslims doesn't give an age for the earth at all. It mentioned stages of creation for the earth like there were stages of creation for other 'life'. [E.g. embryology in the Quran]. But this doesn't even come close to the confusion for us (as thinking and reasoning beings) when confronted with the fact that nothing in our solar system is close to 14 Billion years old.
How do scientists explain this apparent mystery?
The International Planetarium Society, Inc. is a good resource to begin your personal study into this fascinating question.
I believe in the Big Bang theory and the age of the Universe must be very much older than our own solar system. I just don't have proof from any scripture or the Quran yet that has led me to this conclusion; I would like a more solid foundation for this belief.
Now we have many scientists or pseudo scientists who, I assume from some of the cyber buzz, no longer believe in the Big Bang theory.
It remains to be seen what science will turn up in the future about this important question.
There are White Dwarfs or suns which are 10 billion years old, the oldest in the Universe. By measuring the age of such stars, we know that the Universe is billions of years older than that, about 4 By older, according to scientists who have studied the question.
The Muslims' holy book alludes to the possibility of other planets like ours, e.g. "seven earths". There might well be life around a distant star, with a planet like ours which supports life.
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