How Old is Old?
How
old is the universe? How old is the human race? Cosmologists believe
the universe to be 15 billion years old. It began with an immense explosion
called the Big Bang, the echoes of which can still be detected by radio
telescopes today. It expanded from an initial singularity and passed
through several developmental stages. Today, it is still expanding.
Astronomical observations of distant galaxies reveal tell-tale red shifts
in their spectra. The further the galaxy, the greater the red shift.
From these data the rate of expansion is inferred. The rate of expansion
is expressed in a number called the Hubble Constant, after Dr. Edwin
Hubble, who made the first observations of these red shifts and correctly
assessed their meaning. The Hubble Constant today is estimated between
50 and 100 (km/s)/Mpc.
Our
solar system is believed to be 4.6 billion years old. The solar system
has existed for approximately the last third of cosmic history. A scale
model may be built to help comprehend these numbers. If the history
of the universe were represented by a 3,000 page book (for comparison,
Webster's Unabridged New International Dictionary, Second Edition, holds
a total of 3,208 pages) then the entire history of the solar system
would be represented by the last 920 pages.
Those
920 pages include the formation of the sun and planets, the dawn and
rise of life, the great geological ages, and the entire history of the
human race:
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The
last 60 pages represent time from the Devonian epoch to the present.
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At
30 pages from the end, the Age of Dinosaurs comes into full swing.
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And
at 13 pages from the end, the Age of Dinosaurs concludes and the
Age of Mammals begins.
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At
100 words from the end of the book, the Great Ice Age begins.
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Written
human history began less than 10,000 years ago and would occupy
no more than the last 1/500th of the last page of the 3,000 page
book.
If
an average of 500 words per page is assumed then the entire book would
contain 1,500,000 (1.5 million) words. Each word would represent 10,000
years of cosmic history. The last word of the last page would represent
all of recorded human history.
Surely,
humanity is a newcomer to the planet!