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13.7 Billion Years: Most Exact Measurement of Universe's Age
universetoday.com — NASA's Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) has taken the best measurement of the age of the Universe to date. According to highly accurate observations, scientists now have the best estimate yet on the age of the Universe: 13.73 billion years, plus or minus 120 million years (that's an error margin of only 0.87%)
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Watch, in 1 year, it'll be on digg (if the Internet still exists), new most precise estimate absolutely ultimately up to date will be 27.46 billion years, and then in the next 6 months it will be 54.92 billion years, then in the next 3 months, and so, eventually, we'll come to the obvious conclusion, that the universe that we see is comparative to our scale, but that the inevitable conclusion is that it is infinite.
The ant looks at it's hole as a home, the bush as the forest and the rain drop as a flood, and it possibly also believes that the tree leads to the heavens. The same tree from which birds take a dump down into the hole of the ant's domain, at which point the ant gets on it's knees, sacrifice a few other ants they blame for the calamity, and pray the green god to forgive them and stop showering them with crap. -
The accuracy of their measurements were probably augmented by carbon dating the remains of George Burns too.
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Like Sands Through the Hourglass, So are the Days of Our Lives
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Considering its age, it's still in pretty good shape. Oh sure, there are signs of wear here and there, and it doesn't have that 'new universe smell' any more, but to look at it you'd never believe it was almost 14 billion years old. I guess they really knew how to build universes back then.
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What if the basis for this conclusion were wrong?
"This microwave background radiation originates from a very early universe, just 400,000 years after the Big Bang, when the ambient temperature of the universe was about 3,000 K. At this temperature, neutral hydrogen atoms were possible, scattering photons. It is these photons WMAP observes today, only much cooler at 2.7 Kelvin (that's only 2.7 degrees higher than absolute zero, -273.15°C)."
So I was wondering...what if the stated "facts" here were in fact not facts at all...its strange to me that the scientific community at large accepts this proposed history of the Universe as factual when in fact it is all theory and based on some pretty liberal guess work. For instance the statement that 400,000 years after the big bang when the ambient temp was 3000K... this assumption may fit the profile for this theory, but it is far from factual. Just a thought...a few hundred years back most of the scientific community believed the Earth was flat and that we were at the center of the Universe...how far have we really come in understanding how the Universe really works? I would submit that we have not come as far as many would have us believe... -
"numbers are *****"
what if they're wrong at it's 13.6 billion years, that's still a ***** ton of error... -
Old news FTW
I guess there are those who haven't seen it yet though. -
What was going on 13.8 billion years ago?
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how is this importent? how is knowing the universe's age going to solve or help anything or one? who would waste time and money figureing this ***** out...
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13.7 Billion years old, and not even a wrinkle.
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If you have difficulty understanding how scientists landed on this number, theres clubs out there that place the age of the Earth at 5000 years, no questions asked (in fact, questions are discouraged)
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But will it blend?
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so they finally figured out that the sun is just a gigantic birthday cake. Angel Food. and all they did was count all of the candles. it took them this long to count them all without messing up. the last guy who did it went mad after he counted 13,689,548,942 and someone asked him what time it was.
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Creationist evasive maneuvers in 3...2...
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buried as inaccurate
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it seems so young...
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That seems quite young... Even if i was in the mood for it, it would make me longer to make a star, like Adam Sandler.
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Chump change. The other universe is 210 billion years old. Come on!
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Imagine being a billionaire and knowing you have a dollar for every year since the beginning of time...
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In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. On the second day God decided to take a 13,729,995,500 year break. Then God got back to work.
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already posted
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If these "Scientists" can keep coming up with these impressive answers for everything. Where is my anti aging pill?
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Billions and billions......
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Another science vs religion topic.
Evolutionists need to stop being egotistical about science, you really do worship it as though it IS a god. My faith is exactly that, faith. I dont have answers as to why God exists, but then again, I couldnt, even if i saw him. I just hope some of you out there decide to think for yourselves, and wonder if the world we live in and all that in it is, is just pure chance.
You know...you might think im crazy for thinking theres someone who created us, but I'd consider myself even more crazy if i looked at the world and said, everything is here because nothing exploded and the rocks came alive. -
People are dying.....
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BUT THE BIBLE SAYS THE WORLD IS 6,000 YEARS OLD AND THAT EVERYTHING WAS CREATED JUST SO WE COULD EXIST THIS IS WITCHCRAFT I TELLS YA!
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But what was the length of a year, before there was an Earth to even make a complete orbit around the Sun?
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Don't the religious zealots get it yet? They act like scientists are conspiring against them. If they knew anything about scientists at all, then they would realize it is all one big competition to find faults, and inaccuracies, in each others works and findings. Thats what is beautiful about the scientific method, it makes it easy to reproduce valid results, and even easier to sniff out the *****.
Oh yeah, one more thing, you can't use use science to make an argument against science (see this all the time when creationist post). All science, from biology to physics uses the same method, therefore you either except it all or reject it. -
360 million years ago, the Universe was 13.37 years old 8-)
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The universe never began, nor shall it end.
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6,000 years = 13.4 Billion in dog years... ( dog = god backwards... clears throat nervously)
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It took 13.7 billion years to develop intelligent life... oh, wait, snap. Wrong. Maybe another billion should do it.
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C'mon we don't need all this evidence, just ask John McCain, he was alive back then.
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Take that creationists
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I don't know why.. but I think a drink at the restaurant at the end of the universe sounds quite appetizing right now..
R.I.P Douglas Adams. -
Fraser Cain, the author of this blog has an amazing podcast "Astronomy Cast" it's fantastic
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Buried as inaccurate.
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Something seems a little odd when scientists come with these conclusions with their own theories rather than actual fact. For example, the big bang. It has never been proven to have taken place. So how can you base the age of the universe based on the theory of the big bang? You can't. Also what really bothers me is that one of the most fundamental laws of science tells us that there has to be a cause for an effect. What was the actual cause of the effect, the big bang? Nobody can answer this without other unproven theories...
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There is a lot of confusion going on here chaps, the article is about the age of the universe, not the age of the earth.
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Dugg for questions and answers not found in antiquated fairy tales. Science is for grownups.
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even the margin of error is well above and beyond the ridiculous 4000 years set by the bible .. its not even close
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***** scientists!! They can predict no *****.
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dont hate on the christians. their lives on earth are miserable so just let them believe they'll go to heaven and get 72 virgins or whatever. get all these religions mixed up nowadays.
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Please replace all occurrences of 'the universe' 'entire universe' etc with 'observable universe', they aren't the same thing.
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Just whatever you do... DON'T CALL HER AN OLD LADY.. PLEASE!!!!
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I wanted to make a joke containing - 'How the Universe got her groove back' but its 2:40am and I'm too tired.
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The problem I see is not that much about religion/faith and science, more about choosing to take the bible content content as literal narrative of events.
Not all religions based on the bible do that, including the catholic one.
Next, there is no point in arguing with creationist and such about 'proof'', 'true/false' etc...
But it really make me smile to read comment about science being just a bunch of random unproven theories... on a blog, hosted on a computer, which work only because it use industrial manufactured parts (CPU, transistors, lasers, LCD display etc...) who are a result of fundamental science research on quantum physic. -
Only from our frame of reference.
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If it all started at one point and we the matter that we are made of was at that point. How can we say we are looking out ;when we would have to be looking back in.. If you could line up mirrors in just the right way; you would see yourself looking back, looking back in an endless arc or curve, which would in effect cause a shift in light waves, so perhaps this is what they are seeing. either way it just shows how great this whole of what we see is from small to great it is glorious in design.
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