Consider the chapters 3 & 4 readings; write and post an approximately 300-word response about an aspect of
the readings that you don’t understand, or something that jars you; formulate an insightful question or two
about the reading and then attempt to answer your own questions; and respond to another student’s post
(about 100-word), building upon it, disagreeing with it, or re-thinking it. In any case, strive for thoughtfulness
and nuance. To ensure that everyone has a chance to read the post before the due date, post your response
early enough.
Students post
Upon reading chapters 3 and 4, one question came to my mind: how did the birth of the solar system happen
and how do we determine the age of the solar system? I did a lot of research, both on the e-text as well as on
Google and I have learned a lot of things. As we understand it, the solar system started existence as a vast,
spinning cloud of gas and dust, twisting without direction or shape through the universe. This enormous cloud
was turned into our Sun around 4.6 billion years ago. The processes that followed, complete with eight planets,
181 moons and countless asteroids, gave birth to the solar system. An interstellar cloud that would make up
the birthplace of the sun was created by a massive cosmic dust and gas accumulation. Cold temperatures
have clumped the gas together, eventually becoming denser. The thickest parts of the cloud began to crumble
under its very own pressure, producing an abundance of youthful galactic clusters identified as protostars. The
solar system did not wrap things up the building process until the planets developed. The Earth sticks out
among the planets because of its high moisture content, which so many experts claim contributed to the
emergence of society. However the present situation of the earth was much too hot for this to consume water
in the formation of the solar system, indicating that after it had already been processed, the existence material
could have been provided. Quite currently, scientists concluded somewhere between 12 and 14 billion years
ago, the Big Bang happened. The Solar System is believed to be 4.5 billion years old yet people have lived as
a genus for just a few million years, to put that into perspective. It can’t be possible for the universe to be any
younger than the age of the objects that reside in it. Scientists are able to place a cap on age by calculating the
ages of the oldest stars. The world in which we exist is not flat and unchanging, but expanding endlessly. When
the rate of expansion is known, scientists will work backwards to determine the age of the universe.