Earth's Oldest known Object on Display

[hue]

Earth's Oldest Known Object on Display

2 hours, 7 minutes ago
Science - AP

By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press Writer

MADISON, Wis. - A tiny speck of zircon crystal that is barely visible to the eye is believed to be the oldest known piece of Earth at about 4.4 billion years old.



For the first time ever, the public will have a chance to see the particle Saturday at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where researchers in 2001 made the breakthrough discovery that the early Earth was much cooler than previously believed based on analysis of the crystal.

To create buzz about an otherwise arcane subject, the university is planning a daylong celebration of the ancient stone — capped with "The Rock Concert" by jazz musicians who composed music to try to answer the question: What does 4.4 billion years old sound like?

"This is it — the oldest thing ever. One day only," said Joe Skulan, director of the UW-Madison Geology Museum, where the object will be displayed — under police guard — from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. "The idea of having a big celebration of something that's so tiny — we're playing with the obvious absurdity of it."

more...

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=624&ncid=624&e=1&u=/ap/20050408/ap_on_sc/oldest_object

[rucky]

1. Boy howdy! is God making a fool out of all those scientists or what?

making something that seems to be older than the week he made Adam & Eve.

[rsmith6621]

3. How Do They Really Know

>>>>>>>What does 4.4 billion years old sound like<<<<


How do they really know it is 4.4 billion and not 4.5 or 4.356 billion years old.

Much like those who doubt the 6000 to 8000 year old bible timeline model I rather doubt the exacting authenticity of this claim.

Carbon 14 isnt all that accurate.

[dave29]

5. carbon 14

is a bit more accurate than word of mouth

[displacedtexan]

11. Your reply kicks ass!

:yourock:

:rofl:

[nonconformist]

24. Excellent response nt

[Toots]

25. How can you do carbon dating on an inanimate object?

:shrug: I don't understand....by in inanimate I mean never had life as compared to having had life at some time in history.

[phantom power]

6. They almost certainly used some other radioisotope.

C14 dating only works back a few tens of thousands of years. But other radioisotopes have far, far longer half-lifes.

To answer the other question: when they say 4.4 billion, they certainly don't mean 4.40000000 billion, it could pretty easily be 4.356.

[SemiCharmedQuark]

7. They didn't use Carbon 14.

Carbon 14 is used for objects between a few hundred years old and 50 thousand years old. They probably used uranium 238 and/or uranium 235.

[slackmaster]

17. Carbon-14 is only good for tens of thousands of years

I don't know how one dates a zircon.

[KansDem]

20. Hmmmm... Dinner and a movie?

I don't know how one dates a zircon.

hi*i'm*a*zircon*and*i*would*like*copious*amounts*of*popcorn*and*high*fructose*corn*syrup*based*soft*drink...

Here are some handy expressions in Zirconese:

"Hi'ya, toots!" -- dfoi siodnkjw psovcmew!
"Say, I know what I like and I like what I see!" -- jfiuhe fhjincpw pdojcfj wpjiji wnjwpol pwoeofjp pw pvcj di!
"Oh, c'mon, Baby! Don't say 'maybe'" -- jfd kerio ewkoiwer mcoei anerfoicnwl!
"You did say you were over 18?" -- iutru jio eopifh epofih fjo 18?

Good luck!

[mutus_frutex]

18. C14 is much more accurate than what you are implying.

You can date wine vintages to a given harvest if you want. The problem is that it doesn't work for such long time-spans. For that other isotopes pairs are used.

You can take a look at this page for more information:

http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/faq-age-of-earth.html

It has very good information and a primer on isochron dating.

Cheers.

[SnowGoose]

21. You all seem to be missing something important

about carbon dating. Really important.

It is only used for once-living material. Not old rocks.

The fundamental basis of carbon dating is that living material is taking in carbon isotopes in proportion to their abundance in the environment. When the organism dies, it stops taking in carbon, but the isotopes continue decaying at their normal rates, so their abundance will change at a very predictable rate, and that's how you can determine when the organism quit taking in new carbon.

'Goose

[damntexdem]

14. Hey, it is older: it was in a ring Adam gave Eve.

Told her the zircon was diamond. Yeah, men have always been like that.

[slackmaster]

29. That was nothing but a cheap two-bit ring from a Cracker Jack box

:D

[CO Liberal]

2. I Thought They Buried Strom Thurmond

:-)

[Richard Steele]

10. You beat me to it!

:D

[displacedtexan]

12. I just spit coffee on my keyboard!!!!!!!!!!!

That's THE funniest cancellation notice I've ever seen in my life! Look for it on my blog this Sunday (link under the burning bush)!

[damntexdem]

15. Don't mess with Texas --

Texas makes enough messes all on its own.

[Richard Steele]

22. I just PM'd you the link where I found it-please give them the credit. n/t

[dave29]

4. 4.4 billion years old

when the Universe was a mere 8-9 billion years old.

For reference, the ten commandments showed up on the earth a supposed 5,000 or so years ago. How many 5000 year periods went by before God gave his laws to humanity on this planet? About 910,000 5000 year periods. In other words, God took his time laying down his law for earthlings.

[Career Prole]

9. He had all that time to word them just so

and still couldn't make Himself understood clearly by the bible thumpers.
:bounce:

[Kerrytravelers]

8. Whew. For a minute I thouht we were getting a glipse at how far back the

Rethugs were dragging this country.

[InvisibleTouch]

13. There's a vial of cosmic dust in the Smithsonian...

...that's older by several billion years than the Earth itself. An amazing thing to see. I went there in winter of 2000 ... when we still had a real President living in the White House.... :(

[slackmaster]

16. I have a piece of Christmas fruitcake older than that

:nuke:

[underpants]

19. Many Biblical scholars agree that "40 years" equates to a really long time

so 4.4 billions years really means 110,000,000 40 years or a really really really long time just like the Bible says.

[Thor_MN]

28. Oh, I get it, theory of large numbers stuff!!!

Once you get past the number a fundie can count on their toes, it really doesn't matter because they aren't going to get it anyway.

[Zerex71]

23. The fundies will blow a stroke over this one, too.

Just like the mammoth bones they found yesterday.

[xchrom]

26. it's not very big -- you couldn't make an earring.

and it's not like it's a DIAMOND or anything.

call me shallow -- i like my stones either on a man or set in gold or platinum.

actually this is pretty cool.
4.4 billion years -- wow.

[hue]

27. A little more info on the zircon crystal (link)

Hey, this is big news in Wisconsin!

http://announce.curtin.edu.au/release2001/c101.htm

[Solly Mack]

30. Oh, thought you meant my MIL

That's cool!

[rocktivity]

31. Joan Rivers looks a LOT bigger than a speck to me...

:shrug:
rocknation

[despairing optimist]

32. A setting suggestion

[tinfoilinfor2005]

34. Thank You...

I promised myself not to go there, but it was killing me. I'm a sucker for the easy joke...:)

[despairing optimist]

36. As Oscar Wilde said, I can resist anything except temptation.

Glad you liked it.

[Robin Hood]

33. Are they sure that it is the oldest particle on Earth?

Did they test every atom on the planet, including the space debris that enters our atmosphere?

[BlueIris]

35. Oh, man, this is the GEEKIEST thing I have ever heard of in my life.

Especially the detail about "The Rock Concert." I like it.