Age of the Universe Essay

The young earth and old earth was not always a debated topic. Before the 18th century not many people believed in an old earth, the majority of people believed that it was about 6,000 years old. But during the 1700s, people began to challenge the age of the earth. Three of the many men who advanced the theory

Until the early 1900's, scientists used several methods of measurement in their efforts to determine the age of the Earth. They studied sedimentation and erosion, stratification (with fossil evidence), measured the salinity of the oceans, and used thermodynamics to determine loss of heat since the Earth's beginning. Each of these approaches yielded estimates that the Earth was anywhere from 24 to 100 million years old.

How does this relate to the age and origin of the universe? The principle is really quite simple: if the velocity and distance to most galaxies are known, one can extrapolate their motion backward to find the time that they were all compressed together at the moment of the universe's origin, the Big Bang. The duration between then and now is the universe's age. Of course, a simple linear extrapolation won't do; the gravity resulting from matter in the universe can be

Young- Earth view point on the age of earth is based on not only science but the Bible as well. There try to combine the two areas in an effort to present the true age of the earth. One of the areas they use is how long it takes for material to harden. They present

Stanley Miller started the idea that life could have started when carbon and other ingredients combined. He assembled a contraption made out of flasks and tombs in the lab. He fill one flask with gases to represent Earth's primitive atmosphere and connected that to another flask with water to represent the ocean. He put an electric charge through that.simulated lightning going through early atmosphere. After a couple of day, all this brown goo all over the reaction vessel. He said, now he had amino acids in the vessel. Amino acids are compounds that are form when carbon and other elements linked together. They are building block of protiens and cell, which were vital ingredients of all living things. His experiment showed that life can be formed in the harsh condition of early earth.

Our world has changed dramatically since the day Antoine van Leeuwenhoek discovered microorganisms in 1676 using a simple microscope. In early days, scientists first thought life arose from inanimate materials. This theory, known as abiogenesis or spontaneous generation, was disproved later on by scientists including Lazarro Spallanzani and Louis Pasteur. The experiments conducted by these scientists showed that living things could only arise from preexisting life, or biogenesis. All life begins with a living cell, composing of five required components. These components are DNA, RNA, cell membrane, ribosome, and cytoplasm. As more investigations on bacteria were conducted, scientists were able to acquire a deeper knowledge of the microbiology and pathology of animals, plants, and humans.

Because science does not have an omniscient back-up source, any lack of explanation for current phenomenon is easily construed as a weakness to a scientifically unsophisticated audience, placing the burden of proof unfairly at the feet of science. Despite these tactics, a thorough explanation of current scientific understanding eliminates any question of doubt about the age of the Earth, and can directly combat what Young-Earthers consider their strongest claims.

L. Vardiman, A.A. Snelling and E.F. Chaffin (Eds.), Radioisotopes and the Age of the Earth: Results of a Young-Earth Creationist Research Initiative, Institute for Creation Research, Santee, California, and Creation Research Society, St. Joseph, Missouri, 2000.

In 1820 another French man named James Fourier took the next step in estimating the Earth’s age. He accounted for the fact that the Earth is still hot in its core and using mathematical techniques that he developed and we still use today for time-varying phenomena, came up with a number too staggering foe him to write down. He did however leave us his equations and it is easy to plug in the same numbers and get the answer that he could not say, which comes out to be 100 million years. (Gribbin, 16)

It has been known for well over a century now that the Earth’s core, mantle and the crust make up the basic structure of the Earth. However, there is some controversy over how and when the Earth produced its core, mantle and crust. In this essay, I will first discuss about the formation of the Early Earth and its Moon, then about the methods used to pinpoint the age of the Earth. Other than that, I will also expand on core and mantle formation, as well as the eventual production of the continental crust.

     The Age of Exploration was a time of struggle and wealth for many European countries. The pursuit of a trade route to the Far East led many countries across the ocean, looking for the great spice cities that were rumored by Marco Polo. These countries knew that whoever found the shortest or best route would become rich, very quickly. Explorers from many European countries embarked on journeys that not even they had any clue where they were going. This search for the Far East led to many discoveries that would otherwise have never been found.

We now focus our attention on the formation of one particular planet, one that is so far unlike any other in the universe, Earth.

Life has continually perplexed and fascinated individuals since the dawn of mankind. The subject’s complexity is so great even over the course of human existence only a minute fraction of its mysteries have been unraveled. A phenomenon which has always intrigued scientists is the origin of life on Earth, and in recent years significant advancements have been made in the understanding of this enigma. This essay will briefly outline two theories regarding life’s origin on Earth to further comprehend why an explanation for this phenomenon has been so difficult to reach.

According to astronomical research and geological evidence, scientist indicate the universe is approximately thirteen thousand eight hundred and twenty billion years old. The first link to humanity started with a primate group called Ardipithecus. While our ancestors have been around for about six million years, the modern form of humans only evolved about two hundred thousand years ago. The age of the Earth is estimated about four point fifty four billion years because that is the age of the oldest rocks with fossil evidence of life on earth. The oldest rocks on Earth found to date are the Acasta Gneisses in northwestern Canada near the Great Slave Lake, which are four point three billion years old. The study of the origin of life on Earth, more specifically abiogenesis, is the natural process of life arising from non-living matter. Life on Earth is believed to have began from organic compounds about three point eight to four billion years ago. Despite several competing theories for how life arose on Earth scientist only know when life first appeared on Earth and are still far from answering how it appeared. Since it is hard to prove or disprove them, no fully accepted theories of the origin of life exists.

This observation means that it has taken every galaxy the same amount of time to move from a starting position to its current position. This observation is called "Hubble's Law," named after Edwin Hubble (1889-1953) who discovered this in 1929. Edwin Hubble’s evidence supports the expansion of the universe and suggests that the universe was once compacted. Third, if the universe was insanely hot as the Big Bang suggests, scientists should be able to find some of this heat left over. In 1965, Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a 2.725 degree Kelvin Cosmic Microwave Background radiation which infuses the observable universe. This is thought to be the remnant that scientists were looking for. Finally, the discovery of great amounts of Helium and Hydrogen lead to support the Big Bang Theory. (LaRocco)