Summary
• Scientists use two methods to estimate the age of the universe: the Hubble Constant and ancestral stars.
• The Hubble Constant was first calculated by American astronomer Edwin Hubble after discovering that several galaxies were moving away from Earth.
• Based on Hubble’s observations, the astronomer came up with Hubble’s law which showed a correlation between how far an object is and the speed at which it’s receding.
• Using Hubble law, scientists were able to estimate the expansion rate of the universe.
• Scientists were then able to use the Hubble Constant to estimate the age of the universe by working backward, all the way back to the Big Bang.
• The extrapolation depends on the current density and composition of the universe, which shows the history of its expansion.
• In 2012 NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe used that data to estimate the universe's age to be 13.772 billion years old, give or take 59 million years.
• A year later, The European Space Agency’s Planck spacecraft estimated the universe's age to be 13.82 billion years.
• Another way to determine the age of the universe is to look to
Here's how scientists figured out the age of the universe
inverse.com
Summary
• The universe is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years old, based on data from the European Space Agency's Planck spacecraft and the Atacama Cosmology Telescope.
• The Hubble constant is higher for objects that are farther away, and vice versa, suggesting that the expansion of the universe is accelerating.
• By measuring how far away such scattered light is, scientists get an estimate of how old the universe is.
• Scientists think light from the CMB emerged 400,000 years after the Big Bang.
How do we know the age of the universe? | Live Science
livescience.com
Summary
• Scientists can estimate the age of the universe by looking for the oldest stars or by measuring the rate of expansion of the universe and extrapolating back to the Big Bang.
• Globular clusters are a good way to measure the age of the universe because they contain a lot of stars that formed at the same time.
• The oldest globular clusters contain only stars that are less massive than 0.7 solar masses.
How do we measure the size and the age of the Universe? - NASA
nasa.gov
Summary
• The two best methods scientists have for estimating the age of the universe are based on the idea that the universe is expanding and cooling today, and that it was hotter and denser in the past.
• The age of the universe can be determined by measuring how the universe is expanding today and how it has expanded throughout its entire history.
• The age of the universe can be determined to within a very small uncertainty by using data from different sources, including observations of how stars live and die.
How Do We Know The Age Of The Universe? - Forbes
forbes.com
Summary
• The best way to calculate the age of the universe is to use the Hubble constant, which is a speed (km/s) per unit distance (Mpc).
• The Hubble constant has the same value for pretty much every galaxy we measure, and it remains unchanged even when accounting for additional cosmic motions.
• The age of the universe is estimated to be around 13.8 billion years.
This Is How Astronomers Know The Age Of The Universe (And You ... - Forbes
forbes.com
How to Measure the Universe. This diagram illustrates two ways to measure how fast the universe is expanding. In the past, distant supernovae, or exploded stars, have been used as…
NASA - How to Measure the Universe
nasa.gov
Summary
In physical cosmology, the age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang. Today, astronomers have derived two different measurements of the age of the universe: a measurement based on direct observations of an early state of the universe, which indicate an age of 13.787±0.020 billion years as interpreted with the Lambda-CDM concordance model as of 2018; and a measurement based on the observations of the local, modern universe, which suggest a younger age. The uncertainty of the first kind of measurement has been narrowed down to 20 million years, based on a number of studies which all gave extremely similar figures for the age. These include studies of the microwave background radiation by the Planck spacecraft, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe and other space probes. Measurements of the cosmic background radiation give the cooling time of the universe since the Big Bang, and measurements of the expansion rate of the universe can be used to calculate its approximate age by extrapolating backwards in time. The range of the estimate is also within the range of the estimate for the oldest observed star in the universe.
Age of the universe - Wikipedia
wikipedia.org
