What is the age of the universe?

Classification: Education/Science >> Science and Technology

Analysis:

What is the annual geometry of the universe?

Astronomers estimate that it is1300 million years-1400 million years.

Xinhua News Agency, Washington, April 24 (Reporter Mao Lei) Astronomers said on the 24th that they have observed the oldest white dwarf star in the Milky Way with the Hubble Space Telescope, which provides a new way to determine the age of the universe. The newly calculated age of the universe is about 654.38+03 billion years to 654.38+04 billion years.

Astronomers told a NASA news conference that these ancient white dwarfs were discovered in a globular cluster called M4, which is located in Scorpio and 7000 light years away from the Earth. Analysis shows that the age of these white dwarfs is about 654.38+0.2 billion years to 654.38+0.3 billion years.

White dwarfs are the products of burning out the stars in the early universe, which will gradually cool down with the increase of age, so they are regarded as an ideal "clock" for measuring the age of the universe. Astronomers say that estimating the age of the universe with the help of white dwarfs is as simple in principle as predicting when the charcoal fire will go out through embers. But the problem is that white dwarfs will become dimmer and dimmer due to continuous cooling, which is a difficulty that needs to be overcome in actual observation.

In the process of observing M4 globular cluster, the observation ability of Hubble Space Telescope has reached its limit. The camera on the telescope took eight exposure days out of 67 days to take photos of the darkest and lowest temperature white dwarf so far. The light of these white dwarfs is extremely weak, and the brightness is less than11100 million of the darkest star that the human eye can see.

The newly discovered white dwarfs are the first stars in the universe. Early observations by Hubble Space Telescope show that the first stars in the universe may have formed less than 654.38 billion years after the Big Bang that gave birth to the universe. Therefore, taking this 1 100 million year into account, combined with the latest observation results of white dwarfs, it is estimated that the age of the universe should be between10.30 billion year and10.40 billion year, which is basically consistent with some previous results.

Previous inferences about the age of the universe were mainly based on the calculation of the expansion rate of the universe. Astronomers point out that white dwarf observation provides a completely different independent means, which will help to verify and check the results obtained by other methods.

People's Daily Overseas Edition (4th Edition, April 26th, 2002)