Billions of years before the birth of mankind, tiny mineral particles in space gathered together to form a lava ball and then became the earth. But when exactly did this happen? This is a century problem that has puzzled experts and scholars for a long time. 1650, the archbishop of Ireland, James Usher, added up the ages of all the prophets and kings in the Bible, and came to a very accurate conclusion: the earth was born in the evening of the week of 65438+1October 23rd, 4004 BC.

A century later, geologists realized that the thick strata and lava layers on the earth's surface must be millions of years old, not just thousands of years. Ernest rutherford, a physicist, made a new breakthrough. He found that the age of rocks can be accurately determined by measuring radioactive decay. At present, rock samples from all over the world have been measured for billions of years, but scientists have encountered difficulties in the process of exploring the age of the earth. Rocks in the early days of the earth's formation are extremely hard to find if you want to explore the past like a geologist. It is simply too difficult to find evidence of the birth of the earth, because there is rain erosion, plate tectonics and continental drift on the earth. This destroyed the surface, and the stones of that era could not be found at all.

American geologist CC. Pattenson tried a new method. Using meteorites, he knows that the space mineral particles that make up meteorites must be the same as those that make up the earth, that is, their birth date is the same as that of the earth. So, if he can measure the age of meteorites, he can know the real age of the earth.

Pattinson went to Barringer Crater in Arizona to look for samples. The meteorite erupted from this crater is about 46 meters in diameter. It rushed to the earth at an alarming speed. Usually, space materials hit and drill into the earth at the speed of16.1km ~ 24.1km per second, which will produce huge impact force and shock wave and cause a big explosion. The impact of meteorites on the earth is equivalent to two million-ton atomic bombs. In the explosion, almost all meteorites gasified, and only a few fragments survived. Scientists found a piece of pure iron in the crater. This wonderful substance once floated in space.

Parsent took it back and began to measure it immediately. The results were shocked by the test results of the samples. Meteorites have an amazing history of 4.5 billion years. This means that the earth was born 4.5 billion years ago, and Pattinson successfully solved the century-long problems that puzzled many scientists. It is said that Pattinson was excited and excited about the experimental results. He thought he had a heart attack, so he was sent to the hospital. In fact, he was too excited about this amazing discovery.

Modern radioactive dating technology has greatly improved the accuracy of determining the age of the earth. The latest research shows that the age of the earth is 4.567 billion years.