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The universe is a vast bubble of space and time, expanding in volume. In a fraction of a second, it began to expand in volume, and it continues to this day. So how old is the universe?
Since when has it been expanding? How do we know? For a long time, astronomers eclipsed the Earth, and so the universe was timeless. That it was always here, and always will be.
How Old is the Universe According to Big Bang?
In the 18th century, geologists began to gather evidence that perhaps the Earth wasn’t forever. Maybe it was only millions or billions of years old. Maybe even the sun, or even… The universe. Maybe there was a time when there was nothing? Then, all of a sudden, pop… The universe.
It is the science of thermodynamics that gave us our first information. Over vast lengths of time, everything moves toward entropy, or maximum disorder. Just as hot coffee is cold, all temperatures want to be average. And if the universe were infinite in age, everything should have the same temperature. There should be no star, planet or us.
The brilliant Belgian priest and astronomer, George Lemaitre, proposed that the Universe should expand or contract. At some point, he theorized, the universe must have been a limitless point — he called it the prime atom. And it was Edwin Hubble in 1929, who saw distant galaxies moving away from us in all directions, confirming Lamitt’s theories.Our universe is clearly expanding.
Which means if you run the clock backwards, and it was small in the distant past. And if you go too far, there’s a moment in the time the universe begins. Which means it has an age. The next challenge… Finding out the date of birth of the universe.
In 1958, astronomer Alan Sandage used the expansion rate of the Universe, otherwise known as the Hubble Constant, to calculate how long it had been expanding. He came with a figure of about 20 billion years. A more accurate estimate for the age of the universe came with the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation; After the Big Bang, we look in every direction.
About 380,000 years after the Big Bang, our universe cooled to the point that protons and electrons could come together to form hydrogen atoms. At this point, it was a Kelly 3000 Kelvin. By using it and looking at the background radiation, and how far the wavelength of light has spread, astronomers were able to calculate how long it has been expanding.
Initial estimates suggest the age of the universe to be between 13 and 14 billion years. But recent missions, such as NASA’s WMAP mission and the European Planck Observatory, have fine-tuned what predicts with incredible accuracy. We now know that the universe is 13.8242 billion years, plus or minus a few million years.
We don’t know where it came from, or for what reason it came into existence, but we know exactly what our universe is like. It’s a good start.
How Old is the Earth Compared to the Universe?
Our Earth is not even the oldest planet in our solar system, which would be Jupiter. Earth is estimated to be 4.54 billion years old, so the universe itself is, on average, about three times older than our Earth, but only if the universe is actually 13.8 billion years old.
Our galaxy, the Milky Way, could be a better comparison, as it is 13.51 billion years old. One of the oldest black holes ever discovered is estimated to be 13.8 billion years old. It was formed about 690 million years before the Big Bang.
Do you know?
- In the beginning, the universe was infinitely warm – estimates from a few minutes after its birth suggest that it had about 1 billion Kelvin degrees.
- The universe consists of 4.9% ordinary (baryonic) matter, 26.8% dark matter and 68.3% dark energy. Considering only the most massive structures, the universe is made up of filaments, voids, superclusters, and galaxy clusters and clusters.
- Dark matter and dark energy are invisible theoretical substances. The only evidence of their existence lies in some phenomena, which mostly tell us that vast parts of the mass are missing. Thus, in a way, this justifies their possible existence.
- The universe is not only expanding, but it is also accelerating its expansion. Galaxies move away from each other, but at the same time, space is moving/moving again. It is expanding.
- Many theorists suggest that our universe is one of a set of distinct universes, collectively denoted as multiverse.
- Since everything was created after the Big Bang, we are made of star material.
- A popular belief suggests that we are the universe, designed to experience ourselves. Whatever the truth, in a sense, we are the universe.
- The word universe comes from the Latin word “universe” which later became “universal”, and the old French word “universe” – meaning whole in a sense.
Conclusion
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