The Universe Is 13.73 Billion Years Old

CaptainCarrot writes "Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer has summarized for his readers the new results released by NASA from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which has been surveying the 3K microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang. Some of the most interesting results: The age of the universe is now known to unprecedented accuracy: 13.73 billion years old, +/- 120 million. Spacetime is flat to within a 2% error margin. And ordinary matter and energy account for only 4.62% of the universe's total. Plait's comment on the age result: 'Some people might say it doesn't look a day over 6000 years. They're wrong.'"

Comments

Some Perspective:

[Jeremiah Cornelius]

Go placidly amid the noise and waste,
and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself
and heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss... and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right... but that three do.
Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted that in the face of all erridity and disallusionment,
and despite the changing fortunes of time,
there is always a big future in computer maintainance.

Remember the Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
especially with those persons closest to you...
that lemon on your left, for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love, therefore; it will stick to your face.
Gracefully surrender the things of youth,
birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan,
and let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
Hire people with hooks.
For a good time call 606-4311. Ask for Ken.
Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese,
and reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot,
it could only be worse in Milwaukee.

You are a fluke of the Universe.
You have no right to be here,
and weather you can hear it or not,
the Universe is laughing behind your back.

Therefore, make peace with your god,
whatever you conceive him to be:
hairy thunderer or cosmic muffin.
With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
the world continues to deteriorate.

Give up

Music by Christopher Guest

Wait

[Anonymous Coward]

There was a universe before I was born?

Figurative or literal?

[hal2814]

"After about a microsecond, it had cooled enough for protons and neutrons to form. Three minutes later (yes, just three minutes) it had cooled enough for protons and neutrons to stick together."

Is it a literal microsecond or a figurative one? You always have to question measurements of time in creation stories. Did they really mean a minute? Maybe that minute was 4 years long...

How flat is the universe?

[lpangelrob]

We now know that the universe is flat with only a 2% margin of error.

This would make a good bar bet - which is flatter, the universe, or Kansas?

The Answers Were Already There!

[eldavojohn]

The age of the universe is now known to unprecedented accuracy: 13.73 billion years old, +/- 120 million. Spacetime is flat to within a 2% error margin. And ordinary matter and energy account for only 4.62% of the universe's total. Plait's comment on the age result: 'Some people might say it doesn't look a day over 6000 years. They're wrong.'" This was already spelled out in the bible, the answers are all there. Recall that the number of towns and villages in Joshua concatenated with the number of sons Abraham's brother had concatenated with how many days old Isaac was when he was circumcised concatenated with the number of sons Noah had concatenated with Jesus' age when he died is (by no mere coincidence) 2288333 1/3! Which proves that one year to God is like 2,288,333 and 1/3 years to humans.

Do the math, the earth really is 6,000 god years x 2288333 1/3 human yr/god yr = 13.73 billion human years old!

It all fits, the answers were already right before your eyes in the good book. Who needs a scientician or "NASA" to tell us this when we already know it?!

Re:Big Mistake

[pilgrim23]

In the beginning the singularity was void and without (much of anything), then BLIND CHANCE said "Let there be Quanta!"
and the morning and the evening of the first femtosecond. .......And the Hawkings radiation begat energy, and the energy begat matter, yea even unto the event horizon... Hey the only Genesis I know well was made by Sega...

Re:It is 13.73 billion years and three days old

[Brian Gordon]

Yeah, but the universe has gotten 7.5 billion years older in the last 30 years, so you have to scale it too.

Re:Big Mistake

[Zeinfeld]

"The Universe Is 13.73 Billion Years Old"

Aren't we forgetting something before we start the flamefest?

Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear universe
Happy

Oh crap the RIAA just appeared at my desk complaining about a copyright infringement.

Re:There is no contradiction.

[Ortega-Starfire]

No, Photons have mass, they are Catholic.