Scientist said that the oldest meotorite age is 4 billion years. How accurate that date is? and also they did meorite existed before God created the univerese or after?

-- Jean E. Theagene (jtheagene@yahoo.com), January 31, 2001

Answers

Here's an excerpt from a website(meteorites.lpl.arizona.edu/origin.html)about meteorites: "The oldest meteorite specimens are remnants of the very first geologic processes to occur in our solar system 4.6 billion years ago. (The origin of the solar system should not be confused with the origin of the universe, commonly known as the Big Bang, which occurred at least 9 billion years ago and possibly as long ago as 20 billion years.)" So, according to this information, the oldest meteorites are about 4.6 billion years old. Coming from a credible source-the University of Arizona-this date should be quite accurate. Also, I would say that any meteorites-even the oldest ones-would have come into existence only after the creation of the universe. Hope this answers your question!

-- Michael Carpenter (mcarpent@oswego.edu), January 31, 2001.

Just wanted to add some info to this answer.

The material that the solar system is made from is as old as the universe itself. However, Our sun started forming around 10 billion years ago, and obtained nuclear fusion around 4.5 billion years ago. The planets formed by the accretion of small dust grains into larger and larger particles until eventual the planets formed. Meteorites are the leftover crumbs of this process that still reside in the solar system.

The material from the early years of the solar system is long since gone. When our sun was very young it went through something called a T-tauri wind stage, which blew about 2 solar masses worth of material out into the galaxy. Which means that only about 1/3 of the original material in the solar nebula is still in the confines of the solar system.

The remaining material is around 4.6 billion years old, which is the material that came from the numerious molten planetesmals of the early solar system.

Long story short. There is material out there that may be older, but the oldest meteorites are 4.6 billion years old.

-- Rob McRae (rmcrae1@oswego.edu), February 13, 2001.