A new twist on the astrophysical debate? The exact age of the universe has been a hotly debated topic in astrophysical circles for many years, driven by continuous advances in astronomy. In fact, until not long ago, we were clear that the universe was formed in the Big Bang between 12,000 and 14,000 million years ago but the discovery of a star almost 1 million years older than the universe itself questioned this figure. Little by little we have been refining the calculations to represent the standard model of the Big Bang cosmology.
The new estimate, which has been made using data collected in the Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) of the National Science Foundation, coincides with that provided by the standard model of the universe, as well as measurements of the same light made by the Planck satellite of the European Space Agency, which measured remnants of the Big Bang from 2009 to 2013.
However, in 2019, a research team examining the motions of galaxies calculated that the universe was hundreds of millions of years younger than Planck’s team predicted. That discrepancy suggested that a new model for the universe might be necessary and raised concerns that one of the sets of measurements might be wrong.
Now, from an observatory high in the Atacama Desert in Chile, astronomers have taken a new look at the oldest light in the universe. The observations, along with cosmic geometry, suggest that the universe is indeed 13.77 billion years old.
“Now we have found an answer that Planck and ACT agree on,” says Simone Aiola, a researcher at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics. “It speaks to the fact that these difficult measurements are reliable.”
It is not easy to calculate the age of the universe
It is difficult to predict the cosmic distances from our planet. In the past, astronomers arrived at this figure by looking at the oldest stars in the universe, as well as the speed at which space is expanding. In the second method, the Hubble constant, the definite but also controversial rate of expansion of the universe, is the key. This rate is named after the American astronomer Edwin Hubble, who confirmed through observations in the early 20th century that the space between galaxies is expanding.
Measurements from the ACT observatory suggest a Hubble constant of 67.6 kilometers per second per megaparsec. That means that an object 1 megaparsec (about 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.
According to NASA, astronomers can reverse engineer this constant up to the Big Bang to extrapolate the age of the universe. It seems that we now agree.
Referencia: Steve K. Choi, Matthew Hasselfield, Shuay-Pwu Patty Ho, Brian Koopman, Marius Lungu, Maximilian H. Abitbol, Graeme E. Addison, Peter A. R. Ade, Simone Aiola, David Alonso, Mandana Amiri, Stefania Amodeo, Elio Angile, Jason E. Austermann, Taylor Baildon, Nick Battaglia, James A. Beall, Rachel Bean, Daniel T. Becker, J Richard Bond, Sarah Marie Bruno, Erminia Calabrese, Victoria Calafut, Luis E. Campusano, Felipe Carrero, Grace E. Chesmore, Hsiao-mei Cho, Susan E. Clark, Nicholas F. Cothard, Devin Crichton, Kevin T. Crowley, Omar Darwish, Rahul Datta, Edward V. Denison, Mark J. Devlin, Cody J. Duell, Shannon M. Duff, Adriaan J. Duivenvoorden, Jo Dunkley, Rolando Dünner, Thomas Essinger-Hileman, Max Fankhanel, Simone Ferraro, Anna E. Fox, Brittany Fuzia, Patricio A. Gallardo, Vera Gluscevic, Joseph E. Golec, Emily Grace, Megan Gralla, Yilun Guan, Kirsten Hall, Mark Halpern, Dongwon Han, Peter Hargrave, Shawn Henderson, Brandon Hensley, J. Colin Hill, Gene C. Hilton, Matt Hilton, Adam D. Hincks, Renée Hložek, Johannes Hubmayr, Kevin M. Huffenberger, John P. Hughes, Leopoldo Infante, Kent Irwin, Rebecca Jackson, Jeff Klein, Kenda Knowles, Arthur Kosowsky, Vincent Lakey, Dale Li, Yaqiong Li, Zack Li, Martine Lokken, Thibaut Louis, Amanda MacInnis, Mathew Madhavacheril, Felipe Maldonado, Maya Mallaby-Kay, Danica Marsden, Loïc Maurin, Jeff McMahon, Felipe Menanteau, Kavilan Moodley, Tim Morton, Sigurd Naess, Toshiya Namikawa, Federico Nati, Laura Newburgh, John P. Nibarger, Andrina Nicola, Michael D. Niemack, Michael R. Nolta, John Orlowski-Sherer, Lyman A. Page, Christine G. Pappas, Bruce Partridge, Phumlani Phakathi, Heather Prince, Roberto Puddu, Frank J. Qu, Jesus Rivera, Naomi Robertson, Felipe Rojas, Maria Salatino, Emmanuel Schaan, Alessandro Schillaci, Benjamin L. Schmitt, Neelima Sehgal, Blake D. Sherwin, Carlos Sierra, Jon Sievers, Cristobal Sifon, Precious Sikhosana, Sara Simon, David N. Spergel, Suzanne T. Staggs, Jason Stevens, Emilie Storer, Dhaneshwar D. Sunder, Eric R. Switzer, Ben Thorne, Robert Thornton, Hy Trac, Jesse Treu, Carole Tucker, Leila R. Vale, Alexander Van Engelen, Jeff Van Lanen, Eve M. Vavagiakis, Kasey Wagoner, Yuhan Wang, Jonathan T. Ward, Edward J. Wollack, Zhilei Xu, Fernando Zago, Ningfeng Zhu. The Atacama Cosmology Telescope: a measurement of the Cosmic Microwave Background power spectra at 98 and 150 GHz. Journal of Cosmology and Astroparticle Physics, 2020; 2020 (12): 045 DOI: 10.1088/1475-7516/2020/12/045
