Radioactive dating of the elements.
Abstract
This review emphasizes the determination of the age of the Galaxy from nuclear chronologies. Typically the most effective dating involves the use of the long-lived radioactive nuclei 187Re, 232Th, 238U, and 235U to set limits on the galactic age. The fact that all four of these cosmochronologically important radioactive isotopes are formed in a single astrophysical process, the rapid neutron capture process (r-process), allows reasonable estimates of the relative levels of production to be obtained. A brief discussion of the production ratios for these chronometers, as well as those formed in other nucleosynthesis processes, is presented. Effects on the integrated chemical and dynamical evolution of our Galaxy are discussed. Age determinations are compared to those from stellar sources (globular clusters and white dwarfs) and age constraints from cosmological considerations are summarized.
- Publication:
-
Annual Review of Astronomy and Astrophysics
- Pub Date:
- 1991
- DOI:
- 10.1146/annurev.aa.29.090191.002311
- Bibcode:
- 1991ARA&A..29..447C
- Keywords:
-
- Chemical Evolution;
- Milky Way Galaxy;
- Nuclear Astrophysics;
- Radioactive Age Determination;
- Galactic Evolution;
- Hubble Constant;
- Nuclear Fusion;
- Radioactive Isotopes;
- White Dwarf Stars;
- Nuclear and High-Energy Physics;
- Age: Universe;
- Age: Galaxy;
- Age: Galaxies;
- Cosmochronology