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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Age of the universe | 1/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_the_universe | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:31:45.824475+00:00 | kb-cron |
In Big Bang models of physical cosmology, the age of the universe is the cosmological time back to the point when the scale factor of the universe extrapolates to zero. The age is about 13.8 billion years, with the latest models estimating it more precisely as 13.787 billion years. Astronomers have two different approaches to determine the age of the universe. One is based on a particle physics model of the early universe called Lambda-CDM, matched to measurements of features from very early in the history of the universe, like the cosmic microwave background. The other is based on the distance and relative velocity of a series or "ladder" of different kinds of stars, making it depend on local measurements late in the history of the universe. These two methods give slightly different values for the Hubble constant, which is then used in a formula to calculate the age. The range of the estimate is also within the range of the estimate for the oldest observed star in the universe.
== History ==
In the 18th century, the concept that the age of Earth was millions, if not billions, of years began to appear. Nonetheless, most scientists throughout the 19th century and into the first decades of the 20th century presumed that the universe itself was steady state and eternal, possibly with stars coming and going but no changes occurring at the largest scale known at the time. The first scientific theories indicating that the age of the universe might be finite were the studies of thermodynamics, formalized in the mid-19th century. The concept of entropy dictates that if the universe (or any other closed system) were infinitely old, then everything inside would be at the same temperature, and thus there would be no stars and no life. No scientific explanation for this contradiction was put forth at the time. In 1915, Albert Einstein published the theory of general relativity and in 1917 constructed the first cosmological model based on his theory. In order to remain consistent with a steady-state universe, Einstein added what was later called a cosmological constant to his equations. Einstein's model of a static universe was proved unstable by Arthur Eddington. The first direct observational hint that the universe was not static but expanding came from the observations of 'recession velocities', mostly by Vesto M. Slipher, combined with distances to the 'nebulae' (galaxies) by Edwin Hubble in a work published in 1929. Earlier in the 20th century, Hubble and others resolved individual stars within certain nebulae, thus determining that they were galaxies, similar to, but external to, the Milky Way Galaxy. In addition, these galaxies were very large and very far away. Spectra taken of these distant galaxies showed a red shift in their spectral lines presumably caused by the Doppler effect, thus indicating that these galaxies were moving away from the Earth. In addition, the farther away these galaxies seemed to be (the dimmer they appeared) the greater was their redshift, and thus the faster they seemed to be moving away. This was the first direct evidence that the universe is not static but expanding. The first estimate of the age of the universe came from the calculation of when all of the objects must have started speeding out from the same point. Hubble's initial value for the universe's age was very low, as the galaxies were assumed to be much closer than later observations found them to be.
The first reasonably accurate measurement of the rate of expansion of the universe, the Hubble constant, was made in 1958 by astronomer Allan Sandage. His measured value for the Hubble constant came very close to the value range generally accepted since then. Sandage, like Einstein, did not believe his own results at the time of discovery. Sandage proposed new theories of cosmogony to explain this discrepancy. This issue was more or less resolved by improvements in the theoretical models used for estimating the ages of stars. As of 2024, using the latest models for stellar evolution, the estimated age of the oldest known star is 13.8±0.4 billion years. The discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation announced in 1965 finally brought an effective end to the remaining scientific uncertainty over the expanding universe. It was a chance result from work by two teams less than 60 miles apart. In 1964, Arno Penzias and Robert Woodrow Wilson were trying to detect radio wave echoes with a supersensitive antenna. The antenna persistently detected a low, steady, mysterious noise in the microwave region that was evenly spread over the sky, and was present day and night. After testing, they became certain that the signal did not come from the Earth, the Sun, or the Milky Way galaxy, but from outside the Milky Way, but could not explain it. At the same time another team, Robert H. Dicke, Jim Peebles, and David Wilkinson, were attempting to detect low level noise that might be left over from the Big Bang and could prove whether the Big Bang theory was correct. The two teams realized that the detected noise was in fact radiation left over from the Big Bang, and that this was strong evidence that the theory was correct. Since then, a great deal of other evidence has strengthened and confirmed this conclusion, and refined the estimated age of the universe. The space probes WMAP, launched in 2001, and Planck, launched in 2009, produced data that determines the Hubble constant and the age of the universe independent of galaxy distances, removing the largest source of error.
== Definition ==