The universe is 12 billion years old

1999/08/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Astronomia

At the end of May, the Hubble Space Telescope was able to calculate as much as the Universe: About 12 billion years. The Telescope has been able to calculate the Hubble Constant by analyzing the remote stars of the Universe. This constant means that the velocity of distance between the stars is the same throughout the universe, that is, that the Universe expands with the same speed in all directions.

Calculating this constant and calculating the distance velocity of our galaxy from other galaxies, it can be calculated as much as the Universe, that is, the time the Universe has taken to expand after the Big Bang.

For its part, the Hubble Constant will help astronomers understand the nature of the Universe. For most, the value of the constant shows that the Universe is constantly expanding. In this way the window would be resolved between the two main theories of astrophysics, which says that the Universe will expand forever and that thanks to the gravitational force it is retracted back to a state called Big Crunch. If this first theory were true, in the distant future the galaxies would be very far away, and the whole Universe would gradually expand and cool, turning off the stars and scattering the galaxies.