The scientists have discovered that the universe is about 13.8 million years old, which sheds light on better understanding the origins of the universe, how the universe may end, where we are going and when that ending may occur.
A group of scientists concluded the age by studying the image of the oldest light in the universe. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope measures the oldest light in the universe, known as the cosmic microwave background. The 140 team of scientists calculated the age of the universe by calculating these measures. The researchers from the Princeton University led the research.
The oldest light, which is known as “afterglow” of the Big Bang, is called as the cosmic microwave background. The scientists believe that images of infant universe would help in better understanding of the universe. It would also help in finding out where the earth stands and where we are heading to and when the universe will end and how.
Stony Brook Astrophysicist Neelima Sehgal, who is part of the research, said that they were restoring the ‘baby photo’ of the universe to its original condition. The researchers said that they were eliminating the wear and tear of time and space that distorted the image.
A sharper picture of the universe will help in fully understanding how the universe was born, Sehgal said. The observations and new findings from Atacama Cosmology Telescope match the measurements of the Planck satellite data of the same ancient light.
The Atacama group of scientists used the oldest light to determine the age of the universe whereas other groups had used the measurement of galaxies to determine the age of the universe.
A lot f argument has gone into the age of the universe and it if for the first time that ACT and Planck had come to a near measurement. Most of the scientists think that these measurements could be believed. The Atacama group is an international collaboration of scientists from 41 institutions in seven countries.
The age of universe also shows how fast the cosmos is expanding, a number which has been quantified by the Hubble constant. The ACT measurements suggest a Hubble constant of 67.6 kilometers per second per megaparsec. That means an object 1 megaparsec (around 3.26 million light-years) from Earth is moving away from us at 67.6 kilometers per second due to the expansion of the universe. This result agrees almost exactly with the previous estimate of 67.4 km/s per Mpc by the Planck satellite team, but it’s slower than the 74 km/s per Mpc inferred from the measurements of galaxies.
