The Universe Is 13.73 Billion Years Old 755
CaptainCarrot writes "Phil Plait, aka The Bad Astronomer has summarized for his readers the new results released by NASA from the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP), which has been surveying the 3K microwave radiation left over from the Big Bang. Some of the most interesting results: The age of the universe is now known to unprecedented accuracy: 13.73 billion years old, +/- 120 million. Spacetime is flat to within a 2% error margin. And ordinary matter and energy account for only 4.62% of the universe's total. Plait's comment on the age result: 'Some people might say it doesn't look a day over 6000 years. They're wrong.'"
It is 13.73 billion years and three days old (Score:5, Funny)
Big Mistake (Score:5, Funny)
You NEVER tell a woman she looks older!!!
Some Perspective: (Score:5, Funny)
and remember what comfort there may be in owning a piece thereof.
Avoid quiet and passive persons, unless you are in need of sleep.
Rotate your tires.
Speak glowingly of those greater than yourself
and heed well their advice, even though they be turkeys.
Know what to kiss... and when.
Consider that two wrongs never make a right... but that three do.
Wherever possible, put people on hold.
Be comforted that in the face of all erridity and disallusionment,
and despite the changing fortunes of time,
there is always a big future in computer maintainance.
Remember the Pueblo.
Strive at all times to bend, fold, spindle, and mutilate.
Know yourself. If you need help, call the FBI.
Exercise caution in your daily affairs,
especially with those persons closest to you...
that lemon on your left, for instance.
Be assured that a walk through the ocean of most souls
would scarcely get your feet wet.
Fall not in love, therefore; it will stick to your face.
Gracefully surrender the things of youth,
birds, clean air, tuna, Taiwan,
and let not the sands of time get in your lunch.
Hire people with hooks.
For a good time call 606-4311. Ask for Ken.
Take heart amid the deepening gloom
that your dog is finally getting enough cheese,
and reflect that whatever misfortune may be your lot,
it could only be worse in Milwaukee.
You are a fluke of the Universe.
You have no right to be here,
and weather you can hear it or not,
the Universe is laughing behind your back.
Therefore, make peace with your god,
whatever you conceive him to be:
hairy thunderer or cosmic muffin.
With all its hopes, dreams, promises, and urban renewal,
the world continues to deteriorate.
Give up
Music by Christopher Guest
Wait (Score:5, Funny)
Mother in Law's Age? (Score:5, Funny)
Figurative or literal? (Score:5, Funny)
Is it a literal microsecond or a figurative one? You always have to question measurements of time in creation stories. Did they really mean a minute? Maybe that minute was 4 years long...
How flat is the universe? (Score:5, Funny)
This would make a good bar bet - which is flatter, the universe, or Kansas? [guardian.co.uk]
The Answers Were Already There! (Score:5, Funny)
Do the math, the earth really is 6,000 god years x 2288333 1/3 human yr/god yr = 13.73 billion human years old!
It all fits, the answers were already right before your eyes in the good book. Who needs a scientician or "NASA" to tell us this when we already know it?!
Re:The 6000-year people may be right (Score:4, Funny)
For example... [creationmoments.com]
I wonder how many atheists will just pooh-pooh this evidence instead of actually trying to retort it.
Re:Figurative or literal? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe in Genensis one day is 2 billion of our current years. That would mean the Biblical time period is correct. Maybe the creationists are right, just their precision is off!
Re:There is no contradiction. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There is no contradiction. (Score:5, Funny)
Yeah but... (Score:2, Funny)
Re:There is no contradiction. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Big Mistake (Score:5, Funny)
and the morning and the evening of the first femtosecond.
Re:Big Mistake (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It is 13.73 billion years and three days old (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There is no contradiction. (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Mother in Law's Age? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Wait (Score:5, Funny)
They never did get all the bugs out.
Re:There is no contradiction. (Score:2, Funny)
One glaring problem with this calculation (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Big Mistake (Score:5, Funny)
Aren't we forgetting something before we start the flamefest?
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday to you
Happy birthday dear universe
Happy
Oh crap the RIAA just appeared at my desk complaining about a copyright infringement.
Re:It is 13.73 billion years and three days old (Score:3, Funny)
Will 64bit clock counter should be long enough to count since the creation of universe but for how long?
Re:Wait (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Precision vs accuracy (Score:4, Funny)
You can do the same experiment as many times as you want, but as long as you are using the same theoretical foundations, you won't get any closer to the actual result. The only way to judge that the results are accurate are to devise experiments capable of giving results similarly precise but which are founded on different, but accepted, principles. Sort of like how the various methods for dating fossils give similar results.
Still won't work. Those methods have also been validated by testing against multiple known samples - otherwise, you find yourself in a catch-22 in which you can't trust the alternate methods either. What you need to do is build a fusion reactor, create a bunch of new universes, warp into them at some future time, and measure their age. Then come back and tell me about it. Oh, and make sure you don't kill your dad or something in the process, or then you're really screwed.
Otherwise, we're all just pissing in the wind here.
Of course the universe is flat! (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Big Mistake (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Big Mistake (Score:4, Funny)
Re:Big Mistake (Score:0, Funny)
And it is called the "Big, Bada Boom".
Re:Wait (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Big Mistake (Score:5, Funny)
According to Warner the song is in copyright till 2030. I don't think its a claim that could be sustained though. Splitting one note is hardly cause for a 45 year extention of copyright.
Re:Mother in Law's Age? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:There is no contradiction. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Big Mistake (Score:3, Funny)
...so you're saying that Dark Matter is just another name for the Fifth Element?
Re:There is no contradiction. (Score:5, Funny)
Well Happy Birthday Universe!! (Score:4, Funny)
Re:It is 13.73 billion years and three days old (Score:5, Funny)
What if we want to reference an event before the universe existed? I think the best solution is just to keep a sign bit and re-evaluate the issue in 278.54 billion years.
Isn't it obvious? (Score:4, Funny)
That would be The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster [venganza.org]
Re:I've never understood that (Score:5, Funny)
"Well, God put fossils here to test our faith!"
"I think he put you here to test my faith, dude."
Re:Big Mistake (Score:4, Funny)
13.79 years = about to hit puberty (Score:5, Funny)
Re:It is 13.73 billion years and three days old (Score:2, Funny)
Then you could record the universe like an IPv6 IP address. divided by epochs.
Epoch 1.Epoch 2.Epoch 3.Epoch 4.Epoch 5.Epoch 6
0.0.0.0.0.4130000 years old.
Re:Big Mistake (Score:3, Funny)
Universe is flat? (Score:2, Funny)
That's what they said about the earth 400 years ago...
Just you wait, a few more centuries and everyone will realize the true shape is a spherically inverted multifaceted poly-dimensional plexoid of random size. Mark my word, you'll see.
Re:Scientists aren't opposed to the big G (Score:2, Funny)
And global-cooling deniers too! You're not a DENIER, *are you*? You can always tell zealots by the way they throw in jabs for their pet topic, even when it has nothing to do with the topic at hand.
I got the same feeling from the last line of the summary. It was a totally unnecessary jab.
Oh, and Microsoft sucks.
</flamebait>
Re:Big Mistake (Score:1, Funny)
- John Buchan
Re:13.79 years = about to hit puberty (Score:2, Funny)
Leet (Score:2, Funny)