How old are you if you move to another planet?

Age has historically played a role in determining an individuals seniority and in their role in overall group decisions. Even today in many cultures children are taught from a young age to respect their elders. Many cultures rely on the older, wiser, members of the group to make leadership decisions. The saying goes “with age comes wisdom”.

So if a person’s age is relevant then how we arrive at a person’s age is also relevant. Across many different cultures mankind has fairly consistently defined a year as on solar rotation. People have been able to calculate a year (one orbit of the sun) for a very long time. This is something that dates back thousands of years. This got me thinking about how this “cultural” aspect would translate if we did ever populate another planet.

If we left earth and went to a new planet how long would it take for us to start calculating our ages based on the new planets rotation of the sun? How long before we stopped celebrating our birthdays annually based on an Earth year and started celebrating them based on the new planet’s annual trip around the sun? Would we change over immediately? Would the change only occur after the next generation was born?

For example: One of Jupiter’s moons (Europa) holds potential for life. If we were ever to populate Europa the rotation around the sun is vastly different. A 50 year old on Earth would only be 4 on Europa. If we ever colonize Mars a 50 year old on Earth is the equivalent of a 26 year old on Mars. How long would it take us to start calculating, celebrating our birthdays differently - especially with how important age is in our society?

Note: This is not a religious rant but I am going to refer to the Bible as a reference. So following this train of thought - the Bible identifies several pre-flood individuals that have a life span over 800 years. I have read many different theories trying to explain this; however, none of them posed convincing arguments.

So could it be that the oldest people described in the Bible were still calculating their age based on their home planets solar rotation? Taking this a step further based on the average human lifespan - which “potentially inhabitable” planet could an 800+ year old man have originated from if he identified his age a 800+ years old on earth?

For age, keep using the time scale from Earth as adopted by society.

Or don't just to mix things up. No doubt someone will find a way to take advantage of the age issue for personal gain.

a reply to: Buvvy

I don't think age would be relevant, and if it were, it wouldn't be relative to ours, therefore it probably wouldn't matter. It would solely depend on which planet in reference to what you were referring to, and how far from ours. The complication of the where when and hows, would be ... complicated. Could you be slightly more specific?

How old are you if you move to another planet?


Whatever time it takes for the planet to complete it's sun's orbit.

As to the biblical old people, on venus a 50 year earth age would be 81. Mercury would be 207.
So for this to work out for someone 800 years old, the planet would have to be pretty close to the sun.

solarviews.com...

I'd be 200 years old if I lived on Mercury.

We've based the year off the Earth's time for a revolution around the sun. That doesn't change unless it is redefined.

We could add other year names, such a Mercury, Mars, or some planet around another stars.

That means forms need another entry for year name.

Age: 40
Year name: Earth

originally posted by: caterpillage
As to the biblical old people, on venus a 50 year earth age would be 81. Mercury would be 207.
So for this to work out for someone 800 years old, the planet would have to be pretty close to the sun.

Hmmm...just had a thought...what if their home was a moon that orbited a planet like Saturn? Thus they based their birth years on that orbit and not the sun.

There are theories that humans aren’t originally from earth. Won’t go into those theories here.

Assuming the average human lifespan of 80 years.

365 days in a human year x 80 = 29200. In order to come up with an age in the 800-900 year range what would the days in orbital rotation around the sun be? We would be looking in the 32-35 day orbital range around the planets sun. We would also be looking for a planet with less gravity than Earth (human spines just aren’t designed for the gravity on earth).






a reply to: roadgravel

a reply to: Buvvy

Ile let you know when i get there.

Age is a measurement of time.

Time is subjective depending on a reference point.

Ok - so if we are using another planet’s years to caculate our age on earth - which planets years were used to arrive at an age of 850 years old?

a reply to: neo96

a reply to: Buvvy

We would be looking in the 32-35 day orbital range around the planets sun.

That doesn't seem to fit a star. It is in the range of a moon, like ours.

That is very interesting. Calculating a year based on an inhabited moon’s rotation around the planet. I will have to go and see how many days it takes our solar system moons to orbit their planets.

a reply to: CynConcepts

I believe starting with the number 800 from the bible might not be realistic.

originally posted by: Buvvy
Ok - so if we are using another planet’s years to caculate our age on earth - which planets years were used to arrive at an age of 850 years old?

a reply to: neo96

One not in our solar system.

originally posted by: roadgravel
a reply to: Buvvy

We would be looking in the 32-35 day orbital range around the planets sun.

That doesn't seem to fit a star. It is in the range of a moon, like ours.

Titan orbits Saturn 36.20 days....vs earths orbiting sun a little over 365 days. A moon would make more sense.

originally posted by: Sapphire
a reply to: Buvvy

I don't think age would be relevant, and if it were, it wouldn't be relative to ours, therefore it probably wouldn't matter. It would solely depend on which planet in reference to what you were referring to, and how far from ours. The complication of the where when and hows, would be ... complicated. Could you be slightly more specific?

Just spending a lazy Sunday theorizing about which planet (or moon) life on Earth originated from. My assumptions are:

Age is important (establishes senority)
How we calculate age is fairly consistent
The Bible identifies that very early man was identifies as having ages in the 800-900 year range
If - this is due mankind being from another planet with a shorter roatation around the sun...which planet?

Note: If we settle Mars and then Earth is destroyed the Maritan texts would identify the very earliest Martians as being able to live to 80. This might later be miss-interpreted (by future Martian generations) as us being able to live for an incredibly long time.

How old in earth years would one be, lets say, one night at 6:30 pm you left the solar system from earth. At 8:30 pm the exact same night, you return - 32 earth years equivalent later.

If you were 20 years old, would you now be 52? Your birth certificate says you are 20. Messed up, aint it.

originally posted by: caterpillage
As to the biblical old people, on venus a 50 year earth age would be 81. Mercury would be 207.
So for this to work out for someone 800 years old, the planet would have to be pretty close to the sun.

List of potentially habitable planets. Check out the days rotation around the sun column. Also need ine with gravity lower than that on earth.

en.m.wikipedia.org...

originally posted by: roadgravel
a reply to: Buvvy

We would be looking in the 32-35 day orbital range around the planets sun.

That doesn't seem to fit a star. It is in the range of a moon, like ours.

This is the list of known “habitable” planets that I am working off of.
en.m.wikipedia.org...