Then Robert Gentry discovered one of the most intriguing mystery that challenges the traditional theory of the "creation of the earth".

Gentry discovered Polonium Halos in granite rocks which CANNOT have formed if the earth cools down over billions of years....

There has not been any satisfactory explanation for this discovery, except one: that the earth was formed in a solid form within minutes !!!

• A very interesting discovery
  • Working with microscopes in the late 1800s, scientists found small halos in granite. These are tiny, colored concentric circles ("concentric" means circles within circles, as in a bull's eye).

                             

  • When cut exactly through the middle of the halo, there would be a small grain in the center. It was found that the halos were tiny spheres etched in the rock around the central grain.

  • Notice also the different patterns in the halos !!! (This will be very important)

• What causes these halos ???
  It was not until radioactive elements were discovered, about the beginning of our century, that scientists realized that these grains and their halos were the result of radioactivity,

• Radio-active decay:
  • Elements heavier that Lead (Pb) are unstable and the nuclei of such elements decay (break apart) into different elements

  • There are 2 types of radio active decays:

    

    • Alpha decay: the unstable nucleus decays by splitting off an Alpha particle which is basically a Helium nucleus (2 neutrons and 2 protons)

    • Beta decay: the unstable nucleus decays by splitting off a Beta particle which is an electron - one of the neutrons in the nucleus turns into a proton.

• How are the halos formed:

  • Working earlier in the century, John Joly, an Irish researcher, tried to figure out the cause of these halos.

    Joly discovered it was only the alpha particles could make the halos. The halos are formed where the alpha particles stop

  • Granite contains various kinds of crystals.

    When the crystaline structure is damaged, it becomes colored.

  • The beta decay splits off an electron and this particle is too energy-starved to damage the crystal structure in granite.

  • On the other hand, the alpha decay that splits off a Helium nucleus, is of very high energy and it can damage the crystal structure of the granite

  • The distance traveled by the alpha particle in the alpha decay depends on the original speed (which depends on how unstable the radio-active element is).

    The direction traveled by the alpha particle is random...

    As a result, the alpha particles will damage rock atoms that form a sphere with the center being the unstable material:

                 

• Necessary conditions to form radio-halos:
  • Summary on HOW radio-halos are formed:
    • These halos are called "radio-halos" because it is caused by radio-active decay

    • Radio halos are formed when radio-active matter are included in solidified rock - the alpha decay of the the radio-active matter damages the crystal structure in the rock.

  • Facts you need to understand the necessary condition to forming halos:
    • Halos cannot form in molten rock - molten rock does not have any crystal structure.

    • If a rock containing radio-halos is melted, the halos structures will be erased.

  • Necessary condition to form radio-halos:
    1. Radio-active material must first enter the rock before the rock becomes solid - because you cannot put any material into a solid rock (example: how can you put a bean inside an ice-cube ? You put the bean inside water and then freeze it)

    2. Halos can only form when the radio-active decay is going on after the rock has become solid (has crystal structure)

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  Some technical stuff: decay chain and half life

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• Decay Chains
  • A radioactive element (the "parent" element") changes into another one (a "daughter element").

  • The new daughter element can be radio-active and it can change into another element.

    The whole thing is called a decay chain (each member of the chain is called an isotope).

  • There are many radioactive isotopes in nature, but only three are at the very top of decay chains in nature:
    • Thorium-232 (See the Th-232 decay chain: click here

      Th²³² → Ra²²⁸ → Ac²²⁸ → Th²²⁸ → Fr²²⁴ → Ra²²⁴ → Rn²²⁰ → Po²¹⁶ → Pb²¹² → Bi²¹² → Po²¹² → Tl²⁰⁸ → Pb²⁰⁸

    • Uranuim-235 (See the U-235 decay chain: click here

      U²³⁵ → Th²³¹ → Pa²³¹ → Ra²²⁷ → Ac²²⁷ → Th²²⁷ → Fr²²³ → Ra²²³ → At²¹⁹ → Rn²¹⁹ → Bi²¹⁵ → Po²¹⁵ → At²¹⁵ → Pb²¹¹ → Bi²¹¹ → Po²¹¹ → Tl²⁰⁷ → Pb²⁰⁷

    • Uranuim-238 (See the U-238 decay chain: click here

      U²³⁸ → Th²³⁴ → Pa²³⁴ → U²³⁴ → Th²³⁰ → Ra²²⁶ → Rn²²⁴ → Po²¹⁸ → Pb²¹⁴ → Bi²¹⁴ → Po²¹⁴ → Tl²¹⁰ → Pb²¹⁰ → Bi²¹⁰ → Po²¹⁰ → Pb²⁰⁶

    We will pay special attention to the uranium 238 chain, because the mystery halos are Po²¹⁸ halos.....

• Half life
  • When radio-active material decays, it turns into a different material

  • The time it takes to loose half of its original amount of material is called half life

    For example, Uranium-238 has a half life of 4,5 billion years. That means that if you had 1 lb of U-238, then after 4,5 billion years, you will have 0.5 lb of U-238 left.

  • Different radio-active elements have different half lives.

    Some have very long half lives, like U-238, but other have very short half lives, like Polonium-214: 164 microseconds (you can't blink this fast)

  • Knowing the half life of a radio-active element is important, because most of the radio-active material will be gone after 10 half lives (2¹⁰ 1024, so you have less than 0.1% from the original amount of material left)

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  Polonium Halos and their implications

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• Example: Halo formed by Uranium 238 as parent material
  • Recall that only alpha decays make halos in the rock

  • The following are alpha decays in the U-238 decay chain:

    U²³⁸ → Th²³⁴ → Pa²³⁴ → U²³⁴ → Th²³⁰ → Ra²²⁶ → Rn²²⁴ → Po²¹⁸ → Pb²¹⁴ → Bi²¹⁴ → Po²¹⁴ → Tl²¹⁰ → Pb²¹⁰ → Bi²¹⁰ → Po²¹⁰ → Pb²⁰⁶

    The elements in red decays by emitting an alpha particle.

  • Recall that the distance traveled by the alpha particle depends on how unstable the radio-active element is

  • So if the original inclusion matter was Uranium-238, the decay chain will emit eight different alpha particle and after a long long time, you will see eight concentric halos:

                 

    Here's a photo of a Uranium-238 halo:

                 

    Note that some halos (e,g, U-234 and Ra 226) are so close to others that they form one halos.

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• Polonium - 218 Halos
  • Gentry ( click here) found that granite rock contained zillions of the following halo:
                 
  • After carefully measuring the distance in the rings, Gentry determined that this halo can ONLY be caused by Polonium-218 as the original parent material:

    Po²¹⁸ → Pb²¹⁴ → Bi²¹⁴ → Po²¹⁴ → Tl²¹⁰ → Pb²¹⁰ → Bi²¹⁰ → Po²¹⁰ → Pb²⁰⁶

• The Implications of Polonium-238 halos

  • So what the big deal about these Polonium-218 halos ???

    Well, it would not be anything special if some other element (like U-238) was originally embedded in the rock when it was formed....

    But the fact that the ORIGINAL material was Polonium-218 make every difference, because of the decay sequence and the half-time of Polonium-218.

  • The following table shows the half time and the sequence of the decay of Uranium-238 which includes all 3 Polonium isotopes:

    Decay Sequence of Uranium-238

    RADIOISOTOPE		HALF LIFE		RADIATION EMITTED
    Uranium-238		4,500,000,000 years		Alpha
    Thorium-234		24 days		Beta
    Protactinium-234		1.2 minutes		Beta, Gamma
    Uranium-234		250,000 years		Alpha
    Thorium-230		80,000 years		Alpha
    Radium-226		1,600 years		Alpha, Gamma
    Radon-222		3.8 days		Alpha
    Polonium-218		3.05 minutes		Alpha
    Lead-214		26.8 minutes		Beta, Gamma
    Bismuth-214		19.9 minutes		Beta, Gamma
    Polonium-214		164 microseconds		Alpha
    Lead-210		22.3 years		Beta
    Bismuth-210		5.01 days		Beta
    Polonium-210		138.4 days		Alpha
    Lead-206		Stable

  • And what does this all mean ???

    Think:

    • To form a Polonium-218 halo, some Polonium-218 must be embedded into the rock BEFORE the rock becomes solid

    • To form a Polonium-218 halo, the Polonium-218 must be decaying AFTER the rock becomes solid

    • Polonium-218 halo has a half life of 3 minutes, so after 30 minutes, almost all of the Polonium-218 would have disappeared !!!

    • So ???

      ....The time between the rocks of the earth was molten and that is was solidified is at most 30 minutes !!!!

  • Here in lies the problem for the traditional Big Bang theory - it proposes a hot earth and cooled down VERY SLOWLY - it took BILLIONS of years to cool, not just 30 minutes !!!

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  • Hear more on this controversial topic from a Dr. Donald Chittick:
    • Prof. Donald Chittick talk on some phenomenoms that indicate Creation: click here

      Look for "Evolution vs. Reality".

      Chittick's biography: click here

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• BTW - the reason that you have not heard about this highly controversial theory is because the main stream science is hedging for the Big Bang theory.

  Gentry has done this research back in the 1970's.

  Gentry's discovery of the Polonium halos have been published in main stream science journals - see: click here

  Yet, no one is talking about this "nature's tiny mystery" ??? Why ???

  Nobody can explain why these Polonium halos are doing in the granite....

  BTW, there are some article on the Internet   that tries to "refute" the Polonium halos finding, but these article did not make it into Science publications - according to Gentry, these articles try to "hoodwink the unwary" - see: click here .

• It is only now that a number of Creation Science organization is publicizing his work.

  Gentry's website has a lot more material on Polonium Halos: click here

• Reference:
  • click here
  • click here
  • click here

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• Watch the Video that Gentry made on Polonium Halos: click here
  • When you view the video, pay attention to this finding (at around 15 mins into the video):
    Gentry reported that he had specifically tested whether the halos were caused by primordial polunium (i.e., starting with Polonium as initial element, in other words: the polonium was NOT a product of radio-active decay).

    Gentry used a ion microprobe to analyze the different atoms (which are the remnant of radio active decay) at the center of the Polonium halos.

    His experiments showed conclusively that the halos were made by primordial polunium (in other words: the polonium that caused these halos were not the result of radio-active decay)

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• Postscript
  • There are several attemps to "explain" the Polonium halos. Here are some articles and Gentry's responses:
    1. Geologist Paul Damon:
       • Damon's work appeared in EOS and his main objection is not the finding of Gentry, but the apparent consequence of the finding... mainly: if the halos found by Gentry are indeed primordial (i.e., starting with Polonium as initial element, in other words: the polonium was NOT a product of radio-active decay), then the earth has solidified in mere minutes... and the "long cooling hypothesis" that most geologists hold dearly would go down the toilet....

       • Gentry's response can be found at: click here

       • Summary:
         Damon agrees that my observations on polonium halos are "apparently valid," but he rejects the possibility that they are of primordial origin without offering an alternative explanation.

         My comment:

         Some times, God back you into a corner and you have no alternative explanation... There are those would will then admit to the existence of God (for example, the long long time and well-known atheist Antony Flew ( click here ) became a deist after he was backed into a corner by the inexplicable fact that a vast amount of coded information is stored in the DNA (how was the code invented ??? how did information get there ???) - see: click here).

         And then there are those will keep insisting otherwise....

         Interestingly, God has foretold about them as "2 Timothy 7" described them to the letter. These people will appear in the "last days" and they will be like this:

         always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.

         Now that's what I call "fulfilled prophecy"... Amazing... Then again, God is amazing...

    2. Derek York: see - click here

    3. Feather: see - click here

    4. Baillieul:

       • An article by Baillieul that tries to refute the evidence of the Polonimum halos can be found at: click here

       • Gentry's reply to this article can be found here: click here

       • Notable difference between these articles and Gentry's work is the places that the works are published:
         • Gentry's work appeared in peer-reviewed science journals - see: click here
         • Baillieul's article is only available on the Internet...

       • According to Gentry:
         Briefly, to begin, those who are claiming to have found a natural explanation of polonium halos in granites are trying to hoodwink the unwary. They are misrepresenting the facts.

         The reason evolutionists and others post objections on the Internet (anyone can do that, even a DOG :-)) is because they cannot get any reputable scientific journal to publish their claims. The journal editors know their claims are spurious. And were they to be published, the same editors know it would only expose the huge fallacies in their claims

         

       • The evidence clearly favors Gentry: basically, Gentry challenged them to step up to the plate and start a debate in a peer-reviewed SCIENCE journals (the rebuttal works on halos are published on the Internet (no review at all) or in education journals).

       • So far, Gentry has no luck... that really make you wonder how "scientific" these criticisms on Gentry's halo work really are....

    5. Polonium as a result of radon decay
       • Another explanation of the polonium halos is "wandering radon" - see point 3 in click here.

       • Their logic is as follows:
         • Radium decays to Radon-222 and Radon is a gas - it can move through cracks in the granite

         • Radon is initially negatively charged (because it was formed by radium emitting a positively charged alpha particle, so the radon formed will have a surplus of electrons) and The negatively charged Radon gas could diffuse and gather at a "positively charged" location...

         • Then Radon decays to Po-218; and voila - Polonium halos...

       • This explanation has a lot of holes:
         • If the Radon did gather to a single "positively charged" location and did decay into Po-218; the alpha particle emitted by Radon-222 (when it decays to Po-218) would have form an extra ring in the halos

           Some articles did report a "fuzzy" radon ring in the sharply visible Polonium halos - but they did not reason further, so let me do that here: if the radon ring is "fuzzy", the most likely cause is: random location of decaying radon atoms. The result of this is randomly situated Polonium-218 atoms. The consequence of this is: a undetectable smear instead of sharply visible concentrated Polonium halos. (The discoloration will only happen by billions of Po-218 decays concentrated in a single spot - without high concentration, it will be a undetectable smear).

         • Although Rason-222 is initially negatively charged (because Radiun-226 emitted 2 positive protons away when it decayed into Radon-222), the Radon-222 will lose the extra (2) electrons when it collides with other molecules. Especially if the negatively charged Radon-222 is "directed towards a positively charged" location - Radon-222 will shet its electrons. After shedding the excess electrons, the radon gas is neutral and diffusion will make the radon gas go in every possble direction and will not "gather" at a negatively charged spot.

           Bottomline: radon gas will not accummulate in a single spot - and without high concentration of Po-218 in a single spot, you don't get halos (the discoloration will only happen by billions of Po-218 decays concentrated in a single spot - without high concentration, it will be a undetectable smear)