can we be sure that the age of the universe is correct,could the universe be eternal but unable to be studied with currnet technics(measuring light distance)
2006-11-19 00:27:55 · 9 answers · asked by gasp 4 in Science & Mathematics ➔ Astronomy & Space
I think it is some calculation based on the most distant objects we can see (with radio telescopes etc.) and interpretation of 'background' radio echos attributed to the big bang. One figure gave the universe a diameter of 26 billion light years.
I have heard about the big bang theory and people say they have evidence and the scientist are not really disputing it. As a lay reader this will do it for me.
But other possibilities do exist that remain consistent with what we have found out about our universe.
Is this the first big bang in this universe, could we be expanding in the wake of the last such explosion that occurred in this part of a larger universe?.
How many universes are there?
From a mental point of view I find it hard to assign a boundary to the universe and just accept there is nothing beyond it.
2006-11-19 00:49:58 · answer #1 · answered by mince42 4 · 0⤊ 0⤋
We're pretty sure that the universe has a beginning for several reasons. First, everything in the universe is moving away from us - and everything else in the universe. This implies that long ago, things were much closer together. Second, the universe is cooling off very slowly. A professor at Princeton predicted years ago that if the universe began with a singularity, it should have been very hot and the radiation left over would have no where to go but to radiate into space as space expanded, cooling the radiation over time - and we observed that radiation by accidenct a few years later (and awarded several Nobel prizes for it).
2006-11-19 02:48:29 · answer #2 · answered by eri 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
You're thinking is sound! Everything you read and hear about the size and age of the universe deals strictly with the OBSERVABLE universe. There's one helluva lot more to the universe than we can ever see due to the limitations of the speed of light. For instance, most astronomers now think that just after the universe began there was a brief period when the space of the universe expanded faster than the speed of light (..this is called cosmological inflation). Also, the Hubble Law tells us that for every additional 16.3-million light years away a galaxy is from us, its recessional velocity will be 70 km/sec greater. Obviously any galaxy beyond a certain distance will be receding from us faster than the speed of light, therefore not observable.
2006-11-19 00:37:18 · answer #3 · answered by Chug-a-Lug 7 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Yes.
Thats the most likely idea and to me the most obvious. Try telling someone whos been to a university that though, lol
2006-11-19 00:43:08 · answer #4 · answered by m c 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
No, God is the only one with a ruler big enough to measure it! ;o)
The universe did have a beginning, and it is continually expanding outward.
2006-11-19 00:37:57 · answer #5 · answered by Stargater 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
i can see your imagination will light up a new universe years from now
2006-11-19 00:48:56 · answer #6 · answered by bigfat40 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
no, we can never know an absolute frame of reference, and according to theory of relativity we can never measure absolute distance
2006-11-19 00:41:23 · answer #7 · answered by The Potter Boy 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the one above me is correct
read it
2006-11-19 01:19:32 · answer #8 · answered by new_einstein 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
That is possible.
2006-11-19 00:35:45 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋