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Hubble Data Says Universe Is 14 Billion Years Old

Posted by michael on from the elephants-all-the-way-down dept.

no reason to be here writes "New data from the Hubble Space Telescope suggest that the age of the universe is approximately 14 billion years old. Read this press release for more info."

1 of 43 comments (clear)

  1. Old stars and an older universe by jfengel · · Score: 2, Informative

    What the Hubble measured here was not the age of the universe, but the age of the oldest stars we've seen in it. Those stars were measured to be 12-13 billion years old, based on their temperature.

    Different Hubble measurements, based on redshifts, figure that the universe is 13-14 billion years old.

    This is good, because older calculations had suggested that the universe was actually younger than the oldest stars in it, which makes zero sense, and caused all sorts of wacky hypotheses.

    Since the first stars would have formed about 1 billion years into the universe's formation, it means that we have rough agreement (to, uh, one significant figure) between two independent calculations on the age of the universe. Actually, a lot of other theories come into play here, including a very complicated model of how white dwarfs work.

    So this measurement provides evidence for a whole host of theories. I love it when a plan comes together.