New Look at the Age of the Universe
Feb. 22, 1999: In recent years astronomers have come to realize that the Universe is somewhere between 12 and 18 billion years old. They arrive at this estimate by measuring how fast the Universe is expanding due to the Big Bang and whether the expansion is accelerating or decelerating. By tracing the cosmos back in time to an era when the entire Universe was contained in a single point, they can estimate the time elapsed since the Big Bang.
Unfortunately for cosmologists, who would like to know exactly when the Big Bang happened, it's difficult to measure precisely how fast the Universe is expanding and how the rate of expansion has changed since the Big Bang. Traditional methods lead to rather large uncertainties in the final answer.
Now two astronomers, Dr. Marshall Joy (NASA/MSFC) and Dr. John Carlstrom (University of Chicago), may have a new way to tackle the problem. For the past 7 years Joy, Carlstrom, and their colleagues have used radio interferometers to probe tiny fluctuations in the Cosmic Microwave Background Radiation (or "CMBR"). By combining their radio-wavelength images with data from NASA's Chandra X-ray Observatory they hope to open a new window on the history of the Universe.
"We could be on the brink of answering some important cosmological questions," says Joy, "but we need more data that only Chandra can provide."
For the full story and graphics: http://science.nasa.gov/newhome/headlines/ast22feb99_1.htm.
For more information: Linda Porter, NASA/Marshall Space Flight Center
Huntsville AL 35812
(256)544-7588
(256)544-7128 (fax)
[email protected]
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