What is the age of the earth and the sun?
1 Answer
We don’t have very precise answers to these questions, but we are fairly confident we at least know the range (or imprecision!)
Explanation:
We think the sun is around 4.65 billion years old and the earth (and other planets) probably 4.5 billion years old.
We know the former from our understanding of how nebulae collapse to form stars and from understanding the time the sun has been shining by “looking” at the presence of different chemical elements in the sun (perhaps better to say their ratios).
We can measure the age of the earth more directly, or at least the age of the core, by looking at how very heavy, radioactive elements have decayed to form ‘daughter’ nuclei. Again, the ratios tell us (providing we know the decay rate of that isotope accurately) how long the decay has been going on.
Hope this is of use, despite its lack of technical detail.
