Methods for Measuring the Age of the Universe When we speak of “the age of the Universe,”

we’re talking about how much time has past since the Universe could first be described by the
hot Big Bang until the present day. According to research, the universe is approximately 13.8
billion years old. How did scientists determine how many candles to put on the universe’s
birthday cake? They can determine the age of the universe using two different methods: 1. Age of
galaxies from the travel time of light 2. Age of the universe from expansion Under the laws of
General Relativity, if you have a Universe like ours, which is: of uniform density on the largest scales,
which has the same laws and general properties at all locations, which is the same in all directions,
and in which the Big Bang occurred at all locations everywhere at once, then there is a
unique connection between how old the Universe is and how it’s expanded throughout its
history. In other words, if we can measure how the Universe is expanding today and how it
has expanded throughout its entire history, we can know exactly what all the different
components are that make it up. We learn this from a whole host of observations, including: From
direct measurements of the brightnesses and distances of objects in the Universe such as stars,
galaxies and supernovae, allowing us to construct the cosmic distance ladder From
measurements of large-scale-structure, the clustering of galaxies, and from baryon acoustic
oscillations And from the fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background, a “snapshot” of
the Universe when it was a mere 380,000 years old. You put all of these things together, and
you get a Universe that is made up, today, of 68%Methods for Measuring the Age of the
Universe | General Science & Ability Notes dark energy, 27% dark matter, 4.9% normal matter,
about 0.1% neutrinos, about 0.01% radiation, and pretty much nothing else. But you throw in
how the Universe is expanding today, and we can extrapolate this back in time, and learn
the entire expansion history of the Universe, and hence, its age. The number we get — most
precisely from Planck but augmented from the other sources like supernova measurements,
the HST key project and the Sloan Digital Sky Survey — is that the Universe is 13.81 billion
years old, with an uncertainty of just 120 million years. This means we’re confident in the age
of the Universe to 99.1% accuracy, which is an amazing feat! If the Universe had the same
current properties today but were made of 100% normal matter and no dark matter or dark
energy, our Universe would be only 10 billion years old. If the Universe were 5% normal
matter (with no dark matter or dark energy) and the Hubble constant were 50 km/s/Mpc
instead of 70 km/s/Mpc, our Universe would be a whopping 16 billion years old. With the
combinations of things we have today, however, we can confidently state 13.81 billion years
is the age of the Universe, with a very small uncertainty. It’s an incredible feat of science.
Definition for Universe The universe is defined as everything that exists, has existed, and will
exist including all physical space, time, matter and energy, the planets, stars, galaxies, and
the contents of intergalactic space The universe is currently estimated at roughly 13.7 billion
years old, give or take 130 million years. In comparison, the solar system is only about 4.6
billion years old. This estimate came from measuring the composition of matter and energy
density in the universe. Astronomy is the science which investigates all the matter-energy in
the universe: its distribution, composition, physical states, movements, and evolution. It is
concerned with the evolution, physics, chemistry, meteorology, and motion of celestial objects,
as well as the formation and development of the Universe. Astronomy is one of the oldest
sciences Cosmology: Astronomy also includes cosmology, which is the study of the structure,
origin, and evolution of the universe. Cosmology is the branch of astronomy involving the
origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to today and on into the future.
According to NASA, the definition of cosmology is “the scientific study of the large scale
properties of the universe as a whole.” Astrology is not to be confused with Astronomy, which
is a natural scientific study of celestial objects, such as stars, planets, comets, nebulae, star
clusters and galaxies. Astrology is the study of the movements and relative positions of
celestial bodies Methods for Measuring the Age of the Universe | General Science & Ability Notes
interpreted as having an influence on human affairs and the natural world. In other words,
this consists of a number of belief systems which hold that there is a relationship between
astronomical phenomena and events in the human world. If astrology is defined as a study
does it make a science? No, many fields like philosophy or theology are defined as a study and
are not sciences. Evolution of Cosmolgical Theories Cosmology is the study of universe as a
whole, including its distant past and its future. It is the study of the general nature of the
universe. What is the universe now? What was it in the past and what is it likely to be in
the future? How was the universe created? These are the basic themes of cosmology. Men
have been examining and wondering about the sky for many millennia. As scientific
discoveries have been made, ideas about the origin of the universe have changed and are still
changing Ptolemy’s Geocentric Theory A Geocentric theory is an astronomical theory which
describes the universe as a geocentric system, i.e., a system which puts the Earth in the
center of the universe, and describes other objects from the point of view of the Earth.
Ptolemy proposed his geocentric theory in the 2nd century A.D. According to his theory, the
earth stood at the center, surrounded by some eight spheres, the Moon, the Sun, the stars,
and the five other planets known till the time: Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. The
geocentric theory was considered to be profoundly mistaken at that time. Since the advent of
relativity theory in the early 1900s, the laws of physics have been written in covariant
equations, meaning that they are equally valid in any frame. Heliocentric and geocentric
plotting systems are both used today, depending on which allows more convenient
calculations. Sun centered Universe (Heliocentric Theory) In the early 1500s, when virtually
everyone believed Earth was the center of the universe, Polish scientist Nicolaus Copernicus
proposed that the planets instead revolved around the sun. Although his model wasn’t
completely correct, it formed a strong foundation for future scientists to build on and
improve mankind’s understanding of the motion of heavenly bodies. Copernicus’ ideas,
published only two months before he died, took nearly a hundred years to seriously take
hold. When Galileo Galilei claimed in 1632 that Earth orbited the sun, building upon the
Polish astronomer’s work, he found himself under house arrest forcommitting heresy against
the Catholic Church Despite this, the observations of the universe proved the two men correct
in their understanding of the motion of celestial bodies. Today, we call the model of the
solar system, in which the planets orbit the sun, a heliocentric or Copernican model. Origion of the
Universe In 1959 a survey was conducted of scientists across America concerning their
understanding of the physical sciences. One particular question asked “What is your concept
of the age of the Universe?” More than two thirds of the scientists polled responded that
there was no origin of the Universe. They believed that the Universe was eternal. Then five years
later, in 1964, radio astronomers Arno Penzias and Robert Wilson discovered a microwave
signal buried in their data. They attempted to filter out the signal, assuming that it was
merely unwanted noise. However, they soon realized what the signal actually was; they had
inadvertently discovered the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB). The CMB had been
predicted by a theory that few believed at the time called the Big Bang. This discovery was
the first evidence that the Universe had a beginning