Abstract
Modern estimates of the Sun’s age are based primarily on two sources: the isotopic age of components of chondritic meteorites (particularly calcium-aluminium-rich inclusions or CAIs) which are thought to have originated in the solar nebula, and the implications of the Standard Solar Model (SSM), for which helioseismology now provides corroboration. The generally accepted result is ~4.57 Gyr. The protoSun joined the Main Sequence, as depicted on Hertzsprung-Russell diagrams of stellar luminosity and temperature, about 40 Myr later, when its luminosity had supposedly fallen to 70 % of that characterising Main Sequence stars with a mass similar to that of our Sun. Modern counterparts of the protoSun include naked T Tauri and FU Orionis stars; 21Ne from chondrites appears to indicate flare activity on it 100–1000 times the present level.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
References
Holmes A (1911) The association of lead with uranium in rock-minerals, and its application to the measurement of geological time. Phil Trans Roy Soc A 85: 248–256
Lewis C (2011) Holmes’s first date. Geoscientist 21: 12–18
Bowring SA, Williams IS (1999) Priscoan (4.00-4.03) orthogneisses from northwestern Canada. Contrib Mineral Petrol 134: 3–16
O’Neil J, Francis D, Carlson RW (2011) Implications of the Nuvvuagittuq greenstone belt for the formation of Earth’s early crust. J Petrol 52: 985–1009, doi:10.1093/petrology/egr014
Kinoshita N and 18 others (2012) A shorter 146Sm half-life measured and implications for 146Sm–142Nd chronology in the solar system. Science 335: 1614–1617, doi:101126/science1215510
Wilde SA, Valley JW, Peck WH, Graham CM (2001) Evidence from detrital zircons for the existence of continental crust and oceans on the Earth 4.4 Gyr ago. Nature 409: 175–178
Patterson C (1956) Age of meteorites and the earth. Geochim Cosmochim Acta 10: 230–237
Simon JI, Hutcheon ID, Simon SB, Matzel JEP, Ramon EC, Weber PK, Grossman L, DePaolo DJ (2011) Oxygen isotope variations at the margin of a CAI records circulation within the solar nebula. Science 331: 1175–1178. doi:10.1126/science.1197970
Connelly JN, Amelin Y, Krot AN, Bizzarro M (2008) Chronology of the solar system’s oldest solids. Astrophys J 675:L121–L124
Bouvier A, Wadhwa M (2010) The age of the Solar System redefined by the oldest Pb–Pb age of a meteoritic inclusion. Nature Geosci 3:637–641
Cameron AGW, Truran JW (1977) The supernova trigger for formation of the solar system. Icarus 30:447–461
Eddington A (1920) Space, time and gravitation: an outline of the general relativity theory. Cambridge University of Press, Cambridge
Bahcall JN, Salpeter EE (2005) Stellar energy generation and solar neutrinos. Phys Today 58:44–47
Lewis JS (1997) Physics and chemistry of the solar system. Academic, San Diego
American Association of Variable Star Observers (2012) at http://www.aaso.org/vsots_ttau
Cohen M (1981) Are we beginning to understand T Tauri stars? Sky Telescope 61:300–303
Walter FM, Barry DC (1991) Pre- and main-sequence evolution of solar activity. In: Sonett CP, Giampapa MS, Matthews MS (ed) The Sun in time. University of Arizona, Tucson
Miller AA and 30 others (2011) Evidence for an FU Orionis-like outburst from a classical T Tauri star. Astr J 730: 80. doi:10.1088/0004-637X/730/2/808
Bhandari N (1997a) Paleoactivity of the Sun: meteoritic perspective. In Cini Castagnoli G, Provenzale A (ed) Past and present variability of the solar-terrestrial system. IOS, Amsterdam
Demarque P, Guenther DB (1999) Helioseismology: probing the interior of a star. Proc Nat Acad Sci 96:5356–5359
Lal D, Lingenfelter RE (1991) History of the Sun during the past 4.5 Gyr as revealed by studies of energetic solar particles recorded in terrestrial and extraterrestrial samples. In: Sonett CP, Giampapa MS, Matthews MS (eds) The Sun in time. University of Arizona, Tucson
Caffee MW, Hohenberg CM, Swindle TD, Goswami JN (1987) Evidence in meteorites for an active early Sun. Astrophys J 313:L31–L35
Wood PA, Pellas P (1991) What heated the parent meteorite planets? In: Sonett CP, Giampapa MS, Matthews MS (eds) The Sun in time. University of Arizona, Tucson
Ulrich RK, Cox AN (1991) The computation of standard solar models. In: Cox AN, Livingston WC, Matthews MS (eds) Solar interior and atmosphere. University of Arizona, Tucson
Kosovichev AG (1995) Inferences of element abundances from helioseismic data. In: Ulrich RK et al (ed) GONG’94: helio- and asteroseismology from the earth and space. ASP, San Francisco
Dziembowski RO, Sinkiewicz R, Goode PR (1998) In: Korzennik SG, Wilson A (eds) The structure and dynamics of the interior of the Sun and Sun-like stars. European Space Agency, Noordwijk
Bonanno A, Schlattl H, Paternò L (2002) The age of the Sun and the relativistic corrections in the EOS. Astron Astrophys 390:1115–1118
Brun AS, Turck-Chièze S, Morel P (1998) Standard Solar Models in the light of new helioseismic constraints. I. The solar core. Astrophys J 506:913–925
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2013 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Vita-Finzi, C. (2013). Origins. In: Solar History. SpringerBriefs in Astronomy. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4295-6_2
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-4295-6_2
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-94-007-4294-9
Online ISBN: 978-94-007-4295-6
eBook Packages: Physics and AstronomyPhysics and Astronomy (R0)