How old is the universe?

Answer 1

The trouble is that any answer to that question is guess work at best.

Whether that guess is based on scientific observation or pure mythology or religion... It's still pure guess work and any one answer is as valid as the next...

Based on the fact that the passage of time is variable dependant upon the effects of Gravity and/or Speed... Every answer is true.

For the passage of time in a Gravity free vacuum, the universe infinitely old... For the passage of time for the very first photon released - The Universe is only moments old.

If we look at the physical evidence and declare that it would have taken 16 billion years for this, or that... We are talking about the time experienced by those things... But that measurement is no more valid than the mere momments of the photon or the infinite eternity of the vacuum...

No... The truest answer I can give you is this... The universe you live in came into existence at the momment of your creation. So it's aproximately nine monthes older than your age, but it was created with all the appearences of having existed previously...

Answer 2

age of the universe
Physical cosmology

The age of the universe, according to the Big Bang theory, is defined as the largest possible value of proper time integrated along a time-like curve from the Earth at the present epoch back to the "Big Bang". The time that has elapsed on a hypothetical clock which has existed since the Big Bang and is now here on Earth will depend on the motion of the clock. According to the preceding definition, the age of the universe is just the largest possible value of time having elapsed on such a clock.

Some have postulated that the universe has always existed, so there is no "beginning" of the universe (such as steady state theory or static universe formulations). However, the observational evidence is agreed upon by the cosmological community to best support the Big Bang universe. Below is a discussion of the age of the universe according to this theory.


Age based on WMAP
NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) project estimates the age of the universe to be:

(13.7 ± 0.2) × 109 years.
That is, the universe is about 13.7 billion years old, with an uncertainty of 200 million years. However, this age is based on the assumption that the project's underlying model is correct; other methods of estimating the age of the universe could give different ages.

This measurement is made by using the location of the first acoustic peak in the microwave background power spectrum to determine the size of the decoupling surface (size of universe at the time of recombination). The light travel time to this surface (depending on the geometry used) yields a pretty good age for the universe. Assuming the validity of the models used to determine this age, the residual accuracy yields a margin of error near one percent. [1]

This is the value currently most quoted by astronomers.


Age based on CNO cycle
Some recent highly controversial studies found the carbon-nitrogen-oxygen cycle to be two times slower than previously believed, leading to the conclusion that (via the CNO cycle) the Universe could be about one billion years older (roughly 14.7 billion years old) than previous estimates.

Answer 3

The age of the Universe has been a subject of religious, mythological and scientific importance. On the scientific side, Sir Isaac Newton's guess for the age of the Universe was only a few thousand years. Einstein, the developer of the General Theory of Relativity, preferred to believe that the Universe was ageless and eternal. However, in 1929, observational evidence proved his fantasy was not to be fulfilled by Nature.

A very massive, very old cluster of galaxies,
as photographed by the Hubble Space Telescope

In order to understand this evidence, let's think about how a train sounds to a person standing on the platform. An arriving train makes a noise that starts low and gets higher pitched as the train approaches the listener, sounding like oooooohEEEEEEEE. A departing train makes a noise that gets lower pitched as the train goes away from the listener, sounding like EEEEEEEEoooooooh. This change in the sound of the pitch of the train noise depending on whether it is arriving or departing the listener is called the Doppler shift.
The Doppler shift happens with light as well as with sound. A source of light that is approaching the viewer will seem to the viewer to have a higher frequency than a source of light that is receding from that viewer. In 1929, observations of distant galaxies showed that the light from those galaxies behaved as if they were going away from us. If all the distant galaxies are all receding from us on the average, that means that the Universe as a whole could be expanding. It could be blowing up like a balloon.
If the Universe is expanding, then what did it expand from?
This is what tells us that the Universe probably does have a finite age, it probably is not eternal and ageless as Einstein wanted to believe.
But then, okay, how old is the Universe?
We know from studies of radioactivity of the Earth and Sun that our solar system probably formed about 4.5 billions years ago, which means that the Universe must be at least twice that old, because before our solar system formed, our Milky Way galaxy had to form, and that probably took several billions years by itself.
It would be reasonable to guess that the Universe is at least twice as old as our Sun and Earth. However, we can't do radioactive dating on distant stars and galaxies. The best we can do is balance a lot of different measurements of the brightness and distance of stars and the red shifting of their light to come up with some ballpark figure. The oldest star clusters whose age we can estimate are about 12 to 15 billions years old.
So it seems safe to estimate that the age of the Universe is at least 15 billion years old, but probably not more than 20 billion years old.
This matter is far from being settled by astrophysicists and cosmologists, so stay tuned. There could be radical new developments in the futur

Answer 4

The most recent and most acurate estimate comes from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which in 2003 confirmed many Astronomical observations about the universe. Among the findings was the age of the universe: 13.7 billion plus or minus 200 million years old. In other words the universe is anywhere between 13.5-13.9 billion years old.

Answer 5

Well I heard that the scientists tell that the youngest that the universe can be is 13,7 billion years old and the oldest is 15,3 billion years old.I'm 99% sure.

Answer 6

Anywhere from 10 to 15 billion years.

Answer 7

According to present present estimates 15 billion years.

Answer 8

13.7 billion yerss.Scientist assumed that figure by measuring the rate of expansion of Universe.thhy assumed that at the same rate if Universe starts to shrink then it will become a point in 13.7 billion years.

Answer 9

Last time I asked, I got 13.7 billions years as answer. I suspect her to be shy on her age because she keeps on becoming younger.

Her last trick was to increase her growth speed billions years ago. It would imply a younger age as now.

Answer 10

current estimates are between 12 and 15 billion years