1999•Unpublished venueRequires access
The Age of the Universe
Lawrence M. Krauss, Glenn D. Starkman
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Abstract
Because the universe is expanding and galaxies are moving apart, at earlier times galaxies were closer together and the observable universe occupied a smaller volume. This suggests that the universe has had a finite lifetime. Extrapolating the observed expansion backwards it seems clear that at some well-defined time, called the Big Bang, all matter in the observable universe could have been located together at a single point. We can get an estimate of the age of the universe in this way. At the same time, we can try to independently estimate the age of objects in the universe, such as our sun, or our galaxy. By comparing these two age estimates, we can check for consistency.