Final answer:
The age of our solar system is approximately 4.6 billion years, which represents the time since the first solids formed within the solar nebula. This is determined through dating of the most primitive meteorites and studies of Earth's and the Moon's geology.
Step-by-step explanation:
The age of our solar system is approximately 4.6 billion years. This age corresponds to the time since the first solids condensed and began to form into larger bodies within the solar nebula. The most primitive meteorites, which are used as a reference for dating, have an average age of 4.56 billion years, with an uncertainty of less than 0.01 billion years, according to the calculation using the most accurate values for radioactive half-lives.
We also estimate the ages of surfaces within the solar system by counting craters on a given world and using rocks with radioactive elements to find out how much time has passed since those layers solidified. This method has led scientists to estimate that the Earth and Moon are also roughly 4.5 billion years old. The similarity in ages of lunar samples, rocks on Earth, and primitive meteorites supports the premise that the planets and their crusts formed within a few tens of millions of years of the beginning of the solar system.