Before you the milky Way, rotating on a Tasmanian lake in the still waters of which reflected the shining stars. Measurement of small variations of the polarization properties of the CMB (red and blue in the picture) show the age of the Universe. The image covered the area of sky 50 times larger than the width of the moon
The Data obtained with the new cosmology telescope the Atacama in Chile, will further inflame the already heated debate in the astronomical community about the age and expansion rate of the Universe. This topic is a subject of active discussion among researchers who use different astronomical instruments and techniques. So, with the help of the new cosmology telescope, scientists have studied «the oldest light in the observable Universe» and came to the conclusion that the Big Bang happened 13,77 billion years ago, plus or minus 40 million years. But why are they so?
The deeper we look into space, the ocean, the faster the galaxy is moving away from us. The great American astronomer Edwin Hubble discovered this in 1929 and ever since researchers meticulously try to clothe this speed in numbers – the Hubble constant. today, there are two leading approaches to determining the age of the Universe. One of them compares the distance to local variables (Cepheids) and exploding (supernova) stars, the other offers to look at the state of the cosmos shortly after the Big Bang, and use the understanding of the physics of the early Universe to predict the Hubble constant.
Max Planck, German physicist, founder of quantum physics, also has adopted the second approach. He studied cosmic background radiation (cosmic microwave background radiation) is the first light that swept through the space once the universe had cooled sufficiently and it began to form neutral hydrogen atoms around 380,000 years of the life of the cosmos.
Light bathes the Earth almost uniform glow at microwave frequencies, and its temperature profile is just 2.7 degrees above absolute zero – read more about what it is But in this signal can detect the smallest deviations, and how the light becomes distorted or polarized when approaching us. the One of the bits of the received information is the value of the Hubble constant.
6-meter telescope, the Atacama in Chile explores the cosmic microwave background radiation
The Work, which was attended by astronomers from around the world, (there is published work, not until the end of the last peer-reviewed). According to the results, the Hubble constant is equal to 67,6 kilometers per second per megaparsec – megaparsec is 3.26 million light years.
Expansion of the Universe is increased by 67,6 km / second for every 3.26 million light-years. it is Noteworthy that the number obtained using Planck method, is equal to 67.5. But unless such approaches should not give similar results? As the BBC News, the experiments were quite different, but in what way?
Calculate Planck's like «happen» in space, but we are on the Ground, and thus observe smaller angular scales, and our computations just can't be the same. Over time, because of the uncertainty in the measurements, the gap between the two methods became irresistible. This is not to exclude the fact that both methods in something wrong, or perhaps there is some new physics, which none of the parties did not understand.
Every time we look at stars we see the past
There May be a small offset in the data sets obtained through the study of relic radiation or supernova explosions (or both) that are not considered fully. But as soon as the instruments and methods of observation become better, to understand us harder to understand what's really going on. The alternative is that the Universe has something fundamental that we don't understand.
Professor Isobel hook from Lancaster University, UK.
There are several theories that attempt to explain this discrepancy – according to one of them, the extra early expansion of the Universe makes the CMB «measure» other physical quantities. But these theories have problems. The authors of the study admit that they don't know on whose side are, but the dispute is very exciting.
