According to a new measurement made with a powerful telescope in Chile, the universe is 13.777 million years old.
Why it’s important: The precise age of the universe is an important factor for scientists trying to understand the evolution and expansion of the cosmos.
What they found: The Atacama Cosmology Telescope made the measurement by observing fluctuations in the cosmic microwave background (CMB), the glow that remained after the Big Bang formed the universe.
- The researchers used the telescope to effectively create a triangle in the sky, measuring distances between the Earth and two points of interest in the CMB and extrapolating the distance between the two points.
- As the universe expands, measuring distances gives scientists an idea of how quickly this change occurs and therefore the age of the universe.
- The new research is detailed in a study published in Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics.
The big picture: Scientists have been embroiled in a debate about the speed at which the universe is expanding, a number known as the Hubble constant.
- The dating of the universe at 13,777 million years coincides with the age of the universe previously estimated using data from the Planck satellite, but other methods that measure distances between stars have dated the universe significantly younger. .
- “We have now given an answer where Planck and ACT [Atacama Cosmology Telescope] agree, “Simone Aiola, author of the study, said in a statement.” He talks about the fact that these difficult measures are reliable. “
What follows: Scientists continue to collect data and test their analyzes to try to resolve the Hubble Constant conflict.
- “The growing tension between these distant and local measures of the Hubble constant suggests that we may be on the verge of a new discovery in cosmology that could change our understanding of how the universe works,” said Michael Niemack, author of the ‘study. the statement.