The Age of the Universe

[Recusant]

No doubt there's a thread somewhere that this could be added to, or perhaps it was lost in The Downtime. The internal search function has never been particularly helpful (could make it better, but that costs a lot of bytes). Whatever, here we are. 

New evidence appears to confirm the beginning of expansion of the Universe/Big Bang occurring around 13.8 billion years ago.

A portion of a new picture of the oldest light in the universe taken by the [Atacama Cosmology Telescope] ACT. This part covers a section of the sky 50 times the moon's width, representing a region of space 20 billion light-years across. The light, emitted 380,000 years after the Big Bang, varies in polarization (represented by redder or bluer colors). Astrophysicists used the spacing between these variations to calculate a new estimate for the universe's age. Image Credit: ACT Collaboration
[From Stonybrook University News]

"New research of oldest light confirms age of the universe" | ScienceDaily

Just how old is the universe? Astrophysicists have been debating this question for decades. In recent years, new scientific measurements have suggested the universe may be hundreds of millions of years younger than its previously estimated age of approximately 13.8 billions of years.

Now new research published in a series of papers by an international team of astrophysicists, including Neelima Sehgal, PhD, from Stony Brook University, suggest the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. By using observations from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Just how old is the universe? Astrophysicists have been debating this question for decades. In recent years, new scientific measurements have suggested the universe may be hundreds of millions of years younger than its previously estimated age of approximately 13.8 billions of years.

Now new research published in a series of papers by an international team of astrophysicists, including Neelima Sehgal, PhD, from Stony Brook University, suggest the universe is about 13.8 billion years old. By using observations from the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile, their findings match the measurements of the Planck satellite data of the same ancient light.Chile, their findings match the measurements of the Planck satellite data of the same ancient light.

[. . .]

The ACT team estimates the age of the universe by measuring its oldest light. Other scientific groups take measurements of galaxies to make universe age estimates.

The new ACT estimate on the age of the universe matches the one provided by the standard model of the universe and measurements of the same light made by the Planck satellite. This adds a fresh twist to an ongoing debate in the astrophysics community, says Simone Aiola, first author of one of the new papers on the findings posted to arXiv.org.

[Continues . . .]

The aforementioned paper, on the Arxiv site:

"The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: DR4 Maps and Cosmological Parameters"

[Randy]

I love stuff about the universe I always have. Thanks for posting this!

[billy rubin]

i thought for sure i was going to see numbers in th9se dots that proved i wasnt colorblind

[Dark Lightning]

i thought for sure i was going to see numbers in th9se dots that proved i wasnt colorblind

Back when I was much younger and the eye doctor was flashing those cards and asking what the number was, I noticed some patterns for other numbers. I was told not to worry about those. I guess that they are for the color blind people (which I am not), but I can readily discern patterns, color dots or not. I should go look at the cards somewhere on line to see if I can still find the "other" numbers!

[Recusant]

I love stuff about the universe I always have. Thanks for posting this!

My pleasure. I'm fascinated by cosmology as well. 

[Tank]

Fascinating as usual.