Solar System Date of Birth Determined

Invisible Pink Unicorn writes "UC Davis researchers have dated the earliest step in the formation of the solar system — when microscopic interstellar dust coalesced into mountain-sized chunks of rock — to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years. In the second stage, mountain-sized masses grew quickly into about 20 Mars-sized planets and, in the third and final stage, these small planets smashed into each other in a series of giant collisions that left the planets we know today. The dates of these intermediary stages are well established. The article abstract is available from Astrophysical Journal Letters."

Re: was-it-on-a-monday dept.

[Anonymous Coward]

Of course it was. Even then, everything crashed on Mondays.

So many gifts..!

[Empiric]

...to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years.

Similarly, I've discovered my birthday to be defined as subsequent to July.

Give him a BREAK!

[gardyloo]

Yeesh, you people are so negative! The hint is right there in his username!

Yeah, but what day?

[FauxReal]

I need to know the calendar date so I can convince my boss it's a holiday. In fact, why don't we make it an international paid holiday?

Re:4,568 million years divided by 7 days

[SpaceLifeForm]

I doubt the Pope would like the news. It was a Wednesday.

Genesis 2:2

[4D6963]

to 4,568 million years ago, within a range of about 2,080,000 years

And on the seven hundred fifty-nine million seven hundred three thousand seven hundred seventy-third day God ended his work which he had made; and he rested on the seven hundred fifty-nine million seven hundred three thousand seven hundred seventy-third day from all his work which he had made.

Proof of Birthdate Required

[DavidD_CA]

This is good news! The Solar System has been bummed out lately 'cause it couldn't prove it's birthday to anyone. All of the other solar systems could get into the cool clubs, but not ours.

Now it's PARTY TIME and the drinks are on Sol!

shit

[ucblockhead]

It's a fucking *long* time until Sunday then.

Re:Margin of Error - Give him a break!

[Al_Lapalme]

I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe he's French-Canadian. For us, the comma is the decimal separator, so 4,568 million actually looks like "4.568" million -- whereas it actually is "4.568" billion.

Of course, the next sentence shows 2,080,000 and that just completely ruins this ...

Nevermind.

well if you know the exact date

[meeya]

if you know the exact date' we can have a public holiday!

Re: was-it-on-a-monday dept.

[Anonymous Coward]

And then came Patch Tuesday...

01-01-1980

[qcs-rf.com]

You mean the universe didn't start on 01-01-1980?

Re:So many gifts..!

[RachaelB]

Very useful, thank you.

I hadn't considered myself inumerate, but even I was bamboozled by the big numbers. Thanks for the clarification.

Rachael

It's a Shame They Can't Give Us an Exact Date :-)

[Taliesan999]

It's a shame they can't give us an exact date. That would be one hell of a birthday cake :-)

Re: was-it-on-a-monday dept.

[dougisfunny]

It has had a pretty good uptime since then.

Literalist Christian interpretation...

[argStyopa]

....isn't that far off then?

4568 million years vs. somewhere around 6000 yrs. That's only 6 orders of magnitude, I mean, really they're just ZEROES.