AST 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 10: Radiometric Dating, Radiocarbon Dating, Space Debris
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AST 111: Lect 10-The formation of stars and galaxies
-The cosmic amounts of the elements are the result of how stars evolve
–Mostly Hydrogen and Helium
–Only 2 Other elements
–The other elements came from births and deaths of previous stars!
-Stars are nuclear factories
–Produce all other elements
-Radioactivity helps date the universe
-What happens in radioactive decay?
–The elements are changing in to other elements!
–When half of the matter is gone, it is called a half-life
oCarbon dating is most common because of its relatively short half-life
–Using radioactive dating, they have said the universe is only 4.56 Billion years
old
-When new stars form, they have disks around them full of matter
–This matter is what forms all of the planets and space debris in the solar system
–The closer the planets form to the sun, the more likely they are to be terrestrial,
and the farther away they are the more likely they are to be icy/gaseous (Jovian)
oThe Jovian planets are much more massive because they were able to
quickly attract gasses during the formation of the solar system
-The process of bringing the dust and ice in the disks together is called ACCRETION