Nucleocosmochronology

Nucleocosmochronology is the study of the evolution of the Universe with respect to the four fundamental processes of Nucleosynthesis. The dominant principle is that of isotope dating by means of radioactive decay in the Uranium-Thorium system. Both of these elements have long half lives (~10^10 years) and are generated by a nucleosynthetic ('r') process, enabling a definitive estimate for the age of the Universe to be made. Nucleocosmochronology has already been successfully employed to determine an upper limit of 4.56Ga for the age of our Solar System.