What is the approximate age of the universe

  1. OpenStax College Physics, Chapter 34, Problem 8 (Problems & Exercises)
  2. Chronology of the universe
  3. What is the Hubble constant?
  4. How old is the universe? Scientists use these two methods to find out


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OpenStax College Physics, Chapter 34, Problem 8 (Problems & Exercises)

(a) Calculate the approximate age of the universe from the average value of the Hubble constant, H 0 = 20 km/s ⋅ Mly H_0 = 20\textrm H 0 ​ = 20 km/s ⋅ Mly . To do this, calculate the time it would take to travel 1 Mly at a constant expansion rate of 20 km/s. (b) If deceleration is taken into account, would the actual age of the universe be greater or less than that found here? Explain. This is College Physics Answers with Shaun Dychko. The further away a galaxy is, the faster its receding from us and this is because space itself is expanding and the more space there is between us and this galaxy then the faster it will be expanding or going away from us since there's more space expanding in between. Okay! Now we are going to estimate the age of the universe by saying let's suppose we have to go 1 megalight year and at a speed of 20 kilometers per second, how long would it take to do that? So 1 megalight year is 1 times 10 to the 6 light years and we multiply by speed of light for every l and l represents the speed of light and the y represents a period of a year, which we will convert into seconds so we multiply that by 365.25 days per year and then by 24 hours per day and then 3600 seconds per hour and we now have meters on the top and then we divide that by the speed of 20 kilometers per second converted into meters per second by multiplying by 1000 meters per kilometer, this works out to 4.7305 times 10 to the 17 seconds which I then convert back into years and that is ...

Chronology of the universe

• Afrikaans • العربية • বাংলা • Čeština • Español • فارسی • Français • Galego • 한국어 • Հայերեն • Bahasa Indonesia • Italiano • עברית • Қазақша • Magyar • Nederlands • 日本語 • Norsk bokmål • Oʻzbekcha / ўзбекча • Português • Русский • Slovenčina • Српски / srpski • Srpskohrvatski / српскохрватски • Svenska • Українська • اردو • Tiếng Việt • 中文 For the purposes of this summary, it is convenient to divide the chronology of the universe since it The very early universe [ ] The first −12) of Tiny ripples in the universe at this stage are believed to be the basis of large-scale structures that formed much later. Different stages of the very early universe are understood to different extents. The earlier parts are beyond the grasp of practical experiments in The early universe [ ] This period lasted around 370,000 years. Initially, various kinds of At about one second, By 20 minutes, the universe is no longer hot enough for The He + . At around 47,000 years, The Dark Ages and large-scale structure emergence [ ] This period measures from 370,000 years until about 1 billion years. After recombination and At some point around 200 to 500 million years, the earliest generations of stars and galaxies form (exact timings are still being researched), and early large structures gradually emerge, drawn to the foam-like While early stars have not been observed, some galaxies have been observed from about 400 million years cosmic time ( The universe as it appears today [ ] From 1 billion years,...

What is the Hubble constant?

The Hubble constant is one of the most important numbers in cosmology because it tells us how fast the universe is expanding, which can be used to determine the age of the universe and its history. It gets its name from UChicago alum Edwin Hubble, who was first to calculate the constant from his measurements of stars in 1929. Despite nearly a hundred years of astronomical measurements and calculations, scientists still can’t agree on the exact value of the Hubble constant. The true number could reveal missing pieces in our understanding of physics, like new particles or a new form of dark energy. • • • • • • What is the Hubble constant? Figuring out the true value of the Hubble constant is one of the greatest challenges in modern astronomy and could revolutionize our understanding of the universe—so scientists at the University of Chicago and many other institutions around the world are trying to pin down the number using multiple methods. For an astronomical object (e.g. a star or a galaxy) at a known distance from the Earth, the Hubble constant can be used to predict how fast it should be moving away from us. However, the true value of the Hubble constant remains up for debate. Based on the fundamental physics that scientists believe has driven the evolution of the universe, the Hubble constant should be around 68 km/s/Mpc—but this doesn’t match up to observations of the actual stars and galaxies astronomers see around us. UChicago astronomer Wendy Freedman led a team th...

How old is the universe? Scientists use these two methods to find out

You never ask a cosmic being its age. But if that cosmic being encompasses all of space, time, and matter, you could get a little curious. Scientists have long been curious about the age of the But how did scientists estimate how old the universe is, and are they sure of that number? It all comes down to ancient stars and the ever-expanding cosmos. How do astronomers calculate the age of the universe? To estimate the age of the universe, scientists rely on two main methods. • Calculating the expansion rate of the universe • Determining the ages of the oldest stars The Hubble Constant: Since its conception, the universe has been expanding at an accelerating rate. The universe’s expansion rate is known as the Hubble Constant, which is estimated at 46,200 mph per million light-years. The Hubble Constant was first calculated in the 1920s by American astronomer Edwin Hubble after discovering that several galaxies were moving away from Earth. Scientists looked to distant galaxies to measure how fast the universe was expanding. NASA, ESA and J. Olmsted (STScI) Hubble also noted that the further a galaxy was, the faster it was moving away. Based on Hubble’s observations, the astronomer came up with Hubble’s law which showed a correlation between how far an object is and the speed at which it’s receding. Using Hubble law, scientists were able to estimate the expansion rate of the universe. Scientists were then able to use the Hubble Constant to estimate the age of the universe by w...