How old is the universe?

We are led to believe that the universe is between 13-14 billion years old but this is using calculations based on how far into the universe the hubble space telescope can SEE

www.space.com...


I read somewhere that this is just the event horizon what is the crack here do we live in an infinite universe or was there a big bang? mind blowing!

reply to post by wellsybelieves


I think its safe to say based upon todays technology that it is impossible to real say how old the universe is, if I were to take a guess I would say its older than 14 billion years old mabe 100 billion years old

Also i don't understand why any beings could exist in a situation where it is literally impossible to travel to the other end of the "area" in which they live! I am convinced interstellar travel is possible

[edit on 20-9-2008 by wellsybelieves]

reply to post by wellsybelieves

The age of the universe is one of the scientific paradoxes: The cosmologists who subscribe to the Big Bang theory can tell you pretty accurately what the universe was made of in one nanosecond after the singularity blew, but if you ask them when this happened, they time it with plus/minus two billion years or so tolerance. It's like a guy who knows that he was born at 1:31 a.m. and knows the name of the pediatrician who brought him this world, and other details, but doesn't know the year, month, and day of his birth date. All he knows that he was born in the 20th century judging from the medical equipment in the delivery room.

The way of narrowing the age of the universe may be better understood by understanding the dark matter that seems to play role in the rate of universe expansion.

Since there is not a definitive end to the universe ,

obviousli there is no known age to it.

The other theory is that the universe has been around for ever which is another mind boggling scenario. How about the SIZE of the universe if it is finite?

www.space.com...

what about what is beyond the universe if it IS finite?!


aaaaaaaaargh

how about this for an answer as to what is beyond the universe?

www.answerbag.com...

[edit on 20-9-2008 by wellsybelieves]

I don't think we will ever know, not in a million years. I am convinced interstellar travel is NOT possible, I use to, but theres some thing so far away that if you go DOUBLE the speed of light, it still takes you billions of years to get there. The universe is big, its so big you cant even comprehend it. Its mind-boggling, thats why I love it so much.

the universe is very large, much larger than its age would indicate. This is due to the early inflationary phase where the universe expanded at a rate much greater than the speed of light.

At best we'll only be able to see 1/2 of the universe, because every thing on the opposite side will be so far away the light wont have had time to reach us.

I think its bad science to base the age of the universe on the limitations of our telescopes, its obvious when a better more powerful telescope is in place, it will see galaxies beyond 13 billion light years.
Another way in which science contradicts its self is to say energy can not be created or destroyed, if this is the case the energy in the universe has been around for ever and it only just changes form.

Originally posted by thesun
Another way in which science contradicts its self is to say energy can not be created or destroyed, if this is the case the energy in the universe has been around for ever and it only just changes form.

There is nothing contradictory about the First Law of Thermodynamics when it is applied where it belongs. The Big Bang is not regarded as something-out-of-nothing event, for example. There is the term "Big Crunch" that tend to explain the origin of the singularity that this universe evolved from. As galaxies are the building blocks of a universe, universes may be the building blocks of a region called "space." What is the origin of space? Is the origin of space analogous to the origin of this universe with universes expanding and therefore creating the space?

You can speculate ad infinitum, but science doesn't advance through shaky speculations. That's why these questions are of no interests to the cosmologists, unless all the equations take them safely to the subject.

I agree with altered states. The universe has to be much older than 13-14 billion years old they claim, even 100 billion may be low. It takes a long time for hydrogen gas to accumulate in a large enough mass to form a star. Then the star has to live out its life and explode then the particles have to have time to form planets. We do not know how many times this cycle has gone on.

the universe is very large, much larger than its age would indicate. This is due to the early inflationary phase where the universe expanded at a rate much greater than the speed of light.

This would suggest that travelling faster than the speed of light is actually possible. I don't know where you get this theory from though i've never heard that before

The only true answer is that we dont know. Everything we think we know is based on a very limited fundamental science. When we discover the secrets of the universe and have populated a couple of planets and moved beyond our solar system, then maybe we have reached the science needed to truly understand the universe.

Right now, we are sitting on a rock in space, looking out into space with Hubble as the first really good telescope, trying to get an idea of what makes it tick. We dont know.

Scientists are only making guesses too you know, and they are frequently proved wrong. Our knowledge is fundamentally changed every 100 years or so.


[edit on 21-9-2008 by Copernicus]

I'd say the universe has always been and will always be the whole big bang thing strikes me as almost a religion every so often they have to invent something like dark matter to make the theory still work.

One thing is for sure the theory has a foothold now and it will take something extremely major to change opinions. Although I think a lot of physicists actually share my view but won't risk going against the establishment.

Originally posted by Teknikal
Although I think a lot of physicists actually share my view but won't risk going against the establishment.

This is what is holding human kind back - the fear of not being respected by your colleagues and so on. It hurts your credibility and nobody listens to you, even if you are right.

It happened to Tesla and it has happened to tons of other people as well. We humans only listen to whoever we think is "credible" and outsiders are never credible.

We are dumb as rocks really.

[edit on 21-9-2008 by Copernicus]

I dont think we will be ever able to find the true age of the universe, just take a look at this series of youtube videos and it has collection of galaxies that is older than the universe itself.


Dont miss the video, all of astronomy's famous persons are in the video, just to say a few george smoot and vera rubin.













And you will see that even the astronomers have varied opinions of the age of the universe.

Originally posted by stander

Originally posted by thesun
Another way in which science contradicts its self is to say energy can not be created or destroyed, if this is the case the energy in the universe has been around for ever and it only just changes form.

There is nothing contradictory about the First Law of Thermodynamics when it is applied where it belongs. The Big Bang is not regarded as something-out-of-nothing event, for example. There is the term "Big Crunch" that tend to explain the origin of the singularity that this universe evolved from. As galaxies are the building blocks of a universe, universes may be the building blocks of a region called "space." What is the origin of space? Is the origin of space analogous to the origin of this universe with universes expanding and therefore creating the space?

You can speculate ad infinitum, but science doesn't advance through shaky speculations. That's why these questions are of no interests to the cosmologists, unless all the equations take them safely to the subject.

What i am saying is that science can not claim the uinverse is only 13/14 billion years old and at the same time claim that energy can not be created or destroyed, it only changes form. If the energy that created the uinverse had been around before the big bang, then it only just changed form and it was not and could not have been created at the moment of the big bang.

Originally posted by wellsybelieves
The other theory is that the universe has been around for ever which is another mind boggling scenario. How about the SIZE of the universe if it is finite?

Heres a little insight to how small we are in the universe
simply mind boggling


www.youtube.com...

edit to add
www.youtube.com...



[edit on 9/21/2008 by altered_states]

In my opinion the Universe is infinate, there was never a big bang and has always existded. The only reason why most people can't grasp this idea is because everything in our lives revolves around time, beginnings and endings.