How does the age of the earth compare with the age of the universe?

Answer 1

No, Earth isn't the smallest planet.

Earth is the fifth largest planet in our Solar System. It is larger than all the other inner (or 'Rocky') planets (Venus, Mars and Mercury) but smaller than the 4 outer planets (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune) .

Mercury is the smallest planet despite the fact that a multitude of smaller objects orbit the Sun. This is because the definition of 'planet' requires the object be within a certain size bracket, Mercury is the smallest object that fits the required criteria.

These smaller objects are either 'dwarf planets' (a group containing Pluto and Ceres among others) or 'Small Solar System Bodies' which is everything else including comets, asteroids and trans-Neptunian objects.

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Answer 2

The Earth is estimated to be around 4.5 billion years old, while the universe is estimated to be about 13.8 billion years old. This means that the universe is approximately 9 billion years older than the Earth.

Answer 3

The Earth is much newer than the universe.

Here's what had to happen before we could have any planets:

-- The big bang occurs and there is a rapid expansion.

-- Universe cools enough for space and energy to decouple.

-- Universe cools some more, enough for elementary subatomic particles to form.

-- Protons and electrons find each other in the soup, start hooking up, and form hydrogen atoms.

-- For some unknown reason, wrinkles develop in the immense cloud of hydrogen so that it's no longer homogeneous. The big cloud starts to break up into smaller clouds.

-- The smaller clouds feel gravity, and get smaller and smaller, eventually packing

together rather tightly. So tightly, in fact, that the pressure in the center becomes quite enormous.

-- Such enormous pressure, in fact, that individual hydrogen atoms in the center

are forced to merge. That releases energy, which pushes outward, resists the

gravity, and stops the cloud from compressing any further. You have hydrogen

fusion, and stars ! The stars eat up their hydrogen, making helium

-- When some of the largest stars end their lives, they explode as supernovas.

The shocks of the explosions create heavier elements, which get sprayed out

into space from the torn apart stars, as dust, which mixes with the hydrogen

that's still everywhere.

-- Like the clean hydrogen did millions or billions of years earlier, the dusty, dirty

cloud wanders and drifts around, and eventually is brought together by gravity,

in places where it's a little thicker than in other places in space.

-- This cloud drifts, roils, and boils for another few million years, getting smaller

all the time under the influence of its own gravity. The lightest stuff in it ... the

hydrogen ... packs into the center, and another new star ignites. But this one is

surrounded by a smoky, dirty cloud made of all the leftovers ... the heavier dust.

-- With gravity still at work, even the dust slowly sticks together in spots, which

become motes, which become sand, which becomes stones, all in orbit around

the young star. As the stones sail through the dust, they begin to sweep it up,

and they become rocks, which become boulders, which grow to asteroids, which

continue to collide, smash, pulverize, and collect again ...

-- Until finally, most of the dust has been gathered together in fair-size clumps.

The region of space surrounding the star is relatively clean, and there are now

a relatively small group of serious-size bodies in orbit around the star.

This star has planets !

That's what had to happen first.

-- The time since the big bang is estimated at more than 14 billion years.

-- The sun, Earth, and the rest of our solar system all round off to about 4.6 billion years.

Answer 4

No. The Earth is the 6th largest and 6th most massive object in the solar system.

By Diameter

1. The sun is the largest ( 109.25 times the diameter of earth), followed by
2. Jupiter (10.97 Diameter Earth)
3. Saturn (9.14 DiameterEarth)
4. Neptune (3.98 DiameterEarth)
5. Uranus (3.87 DiameterEarth)
6. Earth (1 DiameterEarth)
7. Venus (0.95 DiameterEarth)
8. Mars (.053 DiameterEarth)
9. Ganymede (0.413 DiameterEarth)
10. Titan (0.404 DiameterEarth)
11. Mercury (0.383 DiameterEarth)
12. Calisto (0.378 DiameterEarth)
13. Io (0.286 DiameterEarth)
14. Moon (0.273 DiameterEarth)
15. Europa (0.245 DiameterEarth)
16. Triton (0.212 DiameterEarth)
17. Eris (0.19 DiameterEarth)
18. Pluto (0.187 DiameterEarth)
19. Titania (00.124 DiameterEarth)
20. Rhea (0.12 DiameterEarth)

By Mass

1. The sun is the most massive (332,837 times the mass of earth), followed by
2. Jupiter (317.83 earth masses)
3. Saturn (95.16 MassE)
4. Neptune (17.15 MassE)
5. Uranus (14.5 MassE)
6. Earth (1 MassE)
7. Venus (0.815 MassE)
8. Mars (0.107 MassE)
9. Mercury (0.055 MassE)
10. Ganymede (0.025 MassE)
11. Titan (0.023 MassE)
12. Calisto (0.018 MassE)
13. Io (0.015 MassE)
14. Moon (0.012 MassE)
15. Europa (0.0080 MassE)
16. Triton (0.0036 MassE)
17. Eris (0.0027 MassE)
18. Pluto (0.0022 MassE)
19. Titania (0.00059 MassE)
20. Rhea (0.00039 MassE)

Answer 5

We believe that the proto-Earth collided with another planet perhaps as large as Mars, about 4.3 billion years ago, and only a hundred million years or so after the formation of the Sun and the solar system.

That "proto-Earth" planet would have been entirely destroyed, with the Earth being formed out of the combined mass. We believe the Moon was formed soon after, from the material blown back into space by the collision.

Answer 6

No, that is not likely. The Solar System - including Earth - is less than half the age of the Universe; it seems that stars formed fairly soon after the beginning of the Universe (say, within the first billion years or so), and it is likely that many of those have planets.

Answer 7

The universe is about 13.5 billion years old (various estimates range from 12 to 15 billion years, and I doubt the accuracy of estimates that claim more than one decimal place) while our solar system is about 4.5 billion years old.

Answer 8

No, Earth is the 3rd planet from the sun.

The 8th planet is Neptune.

Answer 9

Earth is slightly larger that Venus. It's diameter is about 650 kilometres greater than Venus, or about 403 miles.

Answer 10

In comparison with the thousands of solar systems in our galaxy, the Earth is minute - no, it's even smaller than that. It is about 8,000 miles in diameter.