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“Missing solar neutrinos prove that the sun shines by gravitational collapse, thereby proving a young sun.”
This is about a formerly vexing problem of detecting only one-third of the predicted number of neutrinos from the sun. Also, accepted theories of particle physics said that the neutrino had zero rest mass, which would prohibit oscillations from one “flavor” to another. Therefore, consistent with the data then available, some creationists proposed that the sun was powered one-third by fusion and two-thirds by gravitational collapse. This would have limited its age to far less than 4.5 billion years.
However, a new experiment was able to detect the “missing” flavors and seems to provide conclusive evidence for oscillation. This means that neutrinos must have a very tiny rest mass after all (since experimental data takes precedence over theory). Therefore creationists should no longer invoke the missing neutrino problem to deny that fusion is the primary source of energy for the sun. It cannot be used as a young-age indicator—nor an old-age indicator, either.
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