Can someone explain how the age of the universe can be approx 12 Billion years old?

Question

Scientist estimate the age of the universe to be approx 12-15 billion years old (depending on what the latest estimates are). They say they can see to within a second of the big bang by using the hubble to look at things 12-15 billion light years away. My question is, if it takes 12-15 billion years for the light from these objects to get here, and no object can travel more than the speed of light, and all objects started out at one point (the singularity) shouldn't it have taken at lease 12-15 billion years for the objects to get that far away in the first place?

Answer 1

Scientists for years have tred to find what is known as a unifying theory of physics that encompasses the laws of Newton and Einstein, and all those physicists before, between and after. This is in part because Newton's physics can be local and readily observed and those of Einstein distant, (from our perception; both the infinately vast and the infinately small) and not so easily observed or even put into words.

As such, relativity is harder to grasp for most people as it is not readily observable or within our ability to experience or percieve. Therefore, for us as humans there is no common frame of reference and as such, it is the laws of relativity are difficult to grasp for the person without and extensive background in physics.

The universe is described as time, space, (area) and matter resembling a balloon or soap suds. Beyond that it is indescribable. There is not time, space or matter. So what is it? We have no way to describe "the beyond", as there are no concepts or references to place meaning other than to say beyond the edges of the universe does not exist. It cannot be even empty space or even nothing, for that indicates dimension and time that do not exist beyond. Even "beyond" is not a correct word to describe what does not exist.

We also know that in relativity, matter cannot be created or destroyed, only transmuted or transformed. Light is matter in the form of energy that displays both the properties of particulate matter and energy matter as waves. Therefore, it can be affected by gravity and other matter as it travels.

SO, to the question, light energy eminating from quasars and other "distant" sources will not travel in a straight line unto infinity, infinity doesn't exist, but instead, travel around the ever expanding bubble(s) of the universe, perhaps ever more difuse, bent, twisted, reflected and impacted by other matter, but it doesn't slow down or evaporate and always will emanate in the direction of it original souce, realtive to the observer.

Like an echo of a single sound comming back to us at different intervals, perhaps with a different pitch over and over, such also it is light energy. Only light is more energetic, faster and never completly goes away. Therfore, we may see the same galaxy in many different phases through time but no necessarily sequencially because of time and travel along the route to this moment.

I doubt the real eggheads of physics would describe it this exact way, but this is essentially correct based on what we think we know today.

I speed typed this so please forgive typo's.

Answer 2

There are a few different things that help scientists estimate the age of the universe.

When Hubble (the man, not the telescope) figured out the universe was expanding, he and others started measuring just how fast the expansion was. Also, you can tell how far away a given star is through some different methods, typically by how far the star's spectrum has been red-shifted. Taking the apparent distance of the farthest stars we've found, and doing some calculations with Hubble's Law, gives you most of our earlier estimates.

More recent estimates are based on things like how the microwave background in the universe (the "echo" of the Big Band) varies, and weird calculations based on that give us our most current estimate, about 13.7 billion years.

Answer 3

No scientist has said that we can see to within a second of the big bang by using the Hubble to look at things 12-15 billion light years away. They do say that they can see billions of years into the past that way, but not all the way back to 1 second. They do claim to have theoretical models than can explain what the universe was like within one second of the big bang though, you may be mixing up these two claims.

Answer 4

We cannot see back to within a few seconds of the big bang (if it even occured). We can see back to an estimated few hundred thousand years from the time the event called the big bang supposedly occured.

The reason the universe could be 13.7 billion years old and the thing you are observing may be 15 billion light years away is because it's thought that the universe is expanding and this expansion may exceed the speed the photon of light travels at.

A single object or information cannot be relayed faster than the speed of light, however, light may slow down under certain circumstances. Also, an event can occure faster than the speed of light in this manner:

Imagin you have a stadium of super fast mutant people. The people on one end of the stadium start to do the wave. A person's cue to stand up is immediatly after the person next to them begins to stand up, thus creating the wave effect. In this sence, the information on when to stand up, the "cue" is propegating at a certain speed. This cannot exceed the speed of light.

Now, what if instead of waiting to recieve any information from the person next to them, everyone just had a pre-known time in their head which they decided to stand up at, and coincidentally, this turns out to be an incredibally short period of time after the person next to them decides to stand up, perhaps this is such a short period of time that if you only look at two people, it appears they stood up at the same time! In this way a faster than light propegation could occure.

Answer 5

Objects cannot travel faster than light, but the expansion of the universe is not based on the objects moving. Instead, space itself is growing. Space can grow at such a pace that the distance between objects is growing by more than light speed, even though the objects aren't moving.

This is how the universe got so big. There are portions of the universe still not visible to us because light has not had time to reach us. On the other hand, each day the universe is a little older and we see a little more of it.

Answer 6

The one important thing you're overlooking is that when scientists say such and such a galaxy is 10-billion light years away what they mean is that that's how far it WAS away when its light first got here. In the 10-billion years that its light has been traveling towards Earth, the galaxy has moved an enormous distance farther away. Actually, by using the Hubble equation, the distance right NOW to that galaxy has increased by 7.14^15 light years.

Answer 7

Actualy Dean, no scientist nor science journal has said that we can see back to one second after the big-bang. Infact, there was not even any form of measurable light until a hundred thousand years after the big-bang. This period was called the dark-ages in cosmology. It wasn't until the hydrogen that formed during the big-bang started to coalaesce into the first starts, galaxies etc. that measurable light was emitted.

We have models that predict how the universe developed as far back as a fraction of a second after the big-bang, but we haven't been able to see that far back.

Answer 8

They ( present time scientific community ) are trying to figure things the best they can.

It's a well established fact that the scientific community continues to 'discover' they are wrong about the way they thought things are, and that is in fact one thing they are quite consistent about.

Actually, that is THE one single fact you can count on as a solid , consistent , undeniable certainty when it comes to the whole of current scientific knowledge and study as it exists in our society today.

This is not to say that the facts concerning the origin of the universe are unknowable or completely out of reach, just that the present scientific community is sort of still in the dark as to the exact nature of things, like the origin of existance and where socks disappeare to in the common cloths dryer machine.

Part of the problem is that many rely on a basic flawed assumption. That the tiny bit of universe they've experienced and are aware of must somehow be all there is to experience and be aware of.

Risking the appearance of philosophical rhetoric, I must put forth the following simple, factual, 'plain as a bed of daisies' point.
They presently have no way of getting up and out to discover what exactly exists out there for sure. And once up and out - current scientific methodology is limited to what we believe we are looking at.

There is just one positively certain connecting thread reaching back thru all the ages of historical scientific discovery - that surly extends into any future that may come into existence. And that is the consistent fact that we continue to experience of 'we just don't exactly know for sure yet'.

And that leads to the other side of this whole journey.
One day we may know for sure - the exact nature and origin of said universe - and that friend will be a very interesting time and place indeed.

Answer 9

God created everything about 6,000 years ago the scientists just refuse to believe so the make up a bunch of crap