(ORDO NEWS) — A new study by an international group of astrophysicists suggests that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. Thus, it is possible that an end has been put in the debate about her age.
The study was conducted using data collected by the Atacama Cosmological Telescope (ACT). Scientists from 41 scientific institutes from seven countries of the world took part in this work.
The object of study was the oldest light in the Universe, which dates back to the Big Bang – the so-called cosmic microwave background. With the help of ACT, his image was obtained. This light, which was emitted 380,000 years after the Big Bang, differs in polarization (represented by red or blue).
Astrophysicists used the interval between these variations to calculate a new estimate of the age of the universe.
“In our work, we restore the ‘baby photo’ of the Universe to its original state, eliminating the wear and tear of time and space that distort the image. Only after seeing this “child’s snapshot” will we be able to more fully understand how our universe was born,” says Nilima Segal.
The new estimate almost exactly matches the measurements of this “ancient light” that were made with the Planck satellite. It is possible that these confirmations will give reason to believe that the age of the universe is still 13.8 billion years. Since, recently, the idea was put forward that the Universe is younger by several hundred million years.
In addition to the age of the universe, scientists have also calculated the rate at which it is expanding. Measurements with ACT are almost exactly the same as previously obtained from the Planck satellite and are 67.6 kilometers per second per megaparsec. This means that an object that is 1 megaparsec (about 3.26 million light years) away from Earth is moving away from it at a speed of 67.6 kilometers per second due to the expansion of the universe.
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