this post was submitted on 03 Dec 2023
101 points (98.1% liked)

Ask Lemmy

26995 readers
1517 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Please don't post about US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 10 points 11 months ago (1 children)

This comment made me realize how much of a ship of Theseus question this is. If you own made of stone, is that the "as old as" the stone, or when the thing was made? If your meteor was made into something, does it somehow change its age? None of that matter came from nowhere though, so the meteor was made from even older stuff, eventually going back to the creation of the universe.

[–] geogle@lemmy.world 4 points 11 months ago (1 children)

For rock material, we generally consider it's age as when it solidifies. Most meteorites are this age because they came from a supernova explosion of our sun at the end of its prior generation. This ejected most all elemental material lager than Hydrogen in our solar system. These elements were fused in that prior sun and ejected during the explosion. What didn't coalesce into a larger body (e.g. a planet) froze into space dust and small asteroids, some of which falls to earth.

So, the amalgam that makes up the rock is 4.5Ga (giga anum), the minerals within are about the same. However, the elements that made up the stone were made long before in inside the prior sun. Now how long the subatomic particles have been around is a question for someone else.

[–] Cethin@lemmy.zip 2 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

I know how it all works, but it's just somewhat weird. Some of the posts in this thread are about houses, but they are made up of other things, sometimes older, like bricks. They don't consider those though. If the OP here used his meteorite as a piece of his house, would he no longer consider it the oldest thing he owns? It's a ship of Theseus. Why does it change when it's part of something else? (Rhetorical question.)