Friday, December 22, 2006

AGU Fall 2006


(Abstract of presentation for AGU December 14, 2006)

The “Faint Young Sun” has been a paradox of astrophysics. Standard models of the Sun’s evolution predict that 4 billion years ago Earth was too cold to support life. Geology and the fossil record contradict this prediction. The paradox and theoretical solution are a fascinating combination of astrophysics, relativity and Earth sciences.

Models predict that 4.5 billion years ago the Sun shone with approximately 70% of its present luminosity. Since power P is related to temperature T by the Stefan-Boltzmann law P ~ T^4, Earth’s temperature would have been only 91% of its present value. Today's temperature is approximately 283K, so temperature in the past would have been only 258K. Earth’s surface would have frozen solid, making evolution of life very unlikely.

Geology shows evidence of sedimentation 4 billion years ago, indicating the presence of rivers and seas. Other geological markers corroborate the presence of liquid water on Earth during this period. Paleontology dates the earliest organisms at least 3.4 billion years old. Clearly liquid water and life both existed when the model predicts Earth was frozen solid. This conflict with observations is the Faint Young Sun paradox.

Fortunately, Relativity and Space/Time can help save the standard solar model. The Sun converts fuel to energy according to E = mc^2. Unified Space/Time predicts that c is given by:

GM = tc^3

Where t is age of the Universe, GM combines its mass and gravitational constant. Solving, we have c(t) = (GM)^{1/3} t^{-1/3}. Billions of years ago, solar output and temperature were therefore higher than originally estimated.

Earth is estimated to be 4.6 billion years and the Universe 13.7 billion years old, 1.5 times its age at the time of Earth’s formation. Energy E = mc^2 is adjusted by: (1.5)^{2/3} = 1.31 times the initial estimate. Multiplying by that estimate of 70%, the Sun’s actual output was 91.7% of the present value. Temperature was then (0.917)^{1/4} = 98% of today's value. If we start with an estimate of 76%, solar luminosity was exactly the present value. The “paradox” leads to an extraordinary confirmation of Theory. The solar constant may indeed be constant, allowing life to have evolved on Earth for billions of years.

Prediction of a changing c can be more precisely corroborated using observations of Type Ia supernovae. Earth’s temperature provides additional data points to supplement supernova data from a more distant past. This corroborating data distinguishes Theory from “accelerating universe” ideas. Theory may also help determine whether CO2 warmed Earth's temperature in the past.

CONCLUSION: The “Faint Young Sun” is not a problem but a window from the Earth sciences to astrophysics and cosmology. Geology and the fossil record can help verify “fossil” values of fundamental measurements, determining whether they are indeed constant.

12 Comments:

Blogger CarlBrannen said...

Very convincing. Do you have a link to your poster?

11:38 PM  
Blogger L. Riofrio said...

HI Carl: The same abstract is on AGU's laborious website here. If you like, I can just put the poster on the blog.

Though getting this out has not been easy, having corroborating evidence from two truly independent sources gives hope that this will break through. Happy Christmas to you, too.

8:56 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Laborious yes, I'm pretty good at finding things but all I found was the title. While doing this I was thinking that the physics conferences (which have their own problems) are usually just a little better organized.

The most outrageous part of the thing I'm working on is that the preons have to travel at 1.732 times faster than c. This explains the early inflation, but the corroborating evidence is in the unexplained attributes of very high energy cosmic rays. The full paper is about 12 pages long, but the short form is here.

In physics you're supposed to be led to new theories by observation, but the opposite seems to be the case. One finds the corroborating evidence from the theory, not vice versa.

11:00 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Carl, the number two link in your comment above is not working, could you re-post it?

7:00 PM  
Blogger CarlBrannen said...

Sorry, I'll test my html this time.

11:23 PM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Proxy data about Earth climate show that:
- 500 million of years BP the temperature of our planet was similar to present temperature with a CO2 atmospheric level of about 9000 ppm (the present level is 370 ppm)
- 420 million of years BP the temperature of the planet was 3°C below present level with a CO2 atmospheric level of about 6000 ppm.
The answer of supporters of Anthropogenic Global Warming (AGW) Theory (earth temperature driven by CO2)is that solar activity in the past was significantly lower that today and this justify a
climate in equilibrium with very high levels of CO2.
Now I think that your theory should be crucial in order to falsify the AGW theory. I'd like to know if you have some other bibliographic reference about it.

Luigi Mariani

4:45 AM  
Anonymous Invertir en oro said...

I woild like to know more about this topic because looks interesting.

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