Comment on ‘It’s amazing’: scientists analyse 4.6bn-year-old dark dust from Bennu asteroid
Knusper@feddit.de 10 months ago
which at 4.6bn years old dates back to the dawn of the solar system
…unlike all the other dust, which popped into existence three days ago.
Zoomboingding@lemmy.world 10 months ago
From a geologic standpoint, yes the rocks in Hawaii are brand new.
Knusper@feddit.de 10 months ago
Well, yeah, to some degree this was a shit take of “ackshually everything in the universe has existed in some form, at least since the Big Bang, quite possibly longer”.
But to some degree, it also just felt like a weak explanation for the excitement, because even on Earth, you can drill into some rocks and find material which has been left untouched for a similar timespan.
While Earth also formed 4.6bn years ago, its crust did not cool out right away, so it would be valid, if they’re specifically excited about this (comparatively) tiny timeframe.
But reading the actual article, it rather sounds like the more obvious excitement is, that it is simply dust from an asteroid and it hasn’t been mostly burnt up from the usual way of asteroids entering Earth’s atmosphere.
Flax_vert@feddit.uk 10 months ago
Fair point, I think the fact that this is wholly extraterrestrial is cooler than the age