[meteorite-list] NPA 01-03-1960 Richardton Meteorite Determines Universe Age

[MARK BOSTICK]

Paper: Tri-City Herald
City: Pasco, Washington
Date: Sunday, January 3, 1960
Page: 19

Age Of Solar System Set 5 Trillion Years

By RENNIE TAYLOR
Associated Press Science Writer

     BERKELEY, Calif., (AP) - A meteorite which fell near Richardton N.D., 
41 years ago has yielded evidence that the age of the solar system is 
4,950,000000 years.
     Dr. John H. Reynolds, University of California physicist, made the 
calculations and announced the results today.
     The age was fixed by determining the amount of a rare radioactive gas, 
xenon 129, in the meteorite. The sample contains more of this rare gas than 
any natural substance previously studied, Dr. Reynolds said.
     The gas came from the radio-active decay of iodine 129 which presumably 
was one of the elements formed when all the chemicals of the solar system 
were produced.
     Iodine 129 has a half life of 17 million years, which means that half 
of any given quantity of it will turn into xenon 129 in that time. Then half 
the remainder will turn to xenon 129 in another 17 million years, and so on 
until the iodine 129 is all gone.
     When the meteorite was formed it contained just a trace of iodine 129 - 
enough to turn into xenon and thus date the celestial visitor.
     From this Dr. Reynolds calculated that the meteorite was formed 350 
million years after the elements of the solar system were made.
     Other means of telling the age of meteorites give this particular type 
an age of 4,600,000,000 years. To this figure Dr. Reynolds added the 350 
million years to get the final age of the materials which made up the 
meteorite.
     The figure agrees generally with those calculated by geologists and 
other scientists fixing the age of the solar system at about five billion 
years.

(end)

Re: Trillions in title. It appears the editor only glanced over read the 
article as it should be billions. Writers do not have any power over titles 
and they always get changed.

Clear Skies,
Mark Bostick
Wichita, Kansas
http://www.meteoritearticles.com
http://www.kansasmeteoritesociety.com
http://www.imca.cc

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PDF copy of this article, and most I post (and about 1/2 of those on my 
website), is available upon e-mail request.

The NPA in the subject line, stands for Newspaper Article. The old list 
server allowed us a search feature the current does not, so I guess this is 
more for quick reference and shortening the subject line now.