EVERYDAY SCIENCE

Detailed explanation-1: -This is Part 5 in that series. Our universe was born about 13.7 billion years ago in a massive expansion that blew space up like a gigantic balloon. That, in a nutshell, is the Big Bang theory, which virtually all cosmologists and theoretical physicists endorse.

Detailed explanation-2: -Measurements made by NASA’s WMAP spacecraft have shown that the universe is 13.7 billion years old, plus or minus about 130, 000 years.

Detailed explanation-3: -The Big Bang was the moment 13.8 billion years ago when the universe began as a tiny, dense, fireball that exploded. Most astronomers use the Big Bang theory to explain how the universe began. But what caused this explosion in the first place is still a mystery.

Detailed explanation-4: -By measuring how the Universe expands over time, we can come to know what forms of matter and energy are present within it. Scientists confidently state that it has been 13.8 billion years since the Big Bang, with an uncertainty of less than 1%.

Detailed explanation-5: -Far from being 13.8 billion years old, as estimated by the European Planck space telescope’s detailed measurements of cosmic radiation in 2013, the universe may be as young as 11.4 billion years. If that is, indeed, the case, then Methuselah is one again older than the universe.