- 2073 - The Age of the Universe. The answer started win the discovery of
radioactivity. By measuring the relative
abundance of different radioactive isotopes scientists can date the origin of
the sample. The birth of the Universe,
the Big Bang, has been interpreted as a super radioactive process. The Universe started as a single atom with an
atomic weight equal to the total mass of the Universe. To learn how old it is:
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------------------------------ 2073 - The
Age of the Universe
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- How old is the
Universe and how do we know that? The answer
started with the discovery of radioactivity. When studying radioactivity scientists reveled
the existence of previously unknown sources of energy and unknown laws of
physics. During radioactive decay
electrons and protons are ejected along with gamma ray radiation.
-
- It is the
Weak force that was holding those protons and electrons together in the form of
neutrons inside the nucleus. It is the
Strong force that holds two protons together in the helium nucleus. These ejected helium nuclei particles from
the nuclei were first known as alpha rays.
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- Radioactive decay
is a natural process that is responsible for much of the molten heat at the
center of our planet. Uranium 238 is 99%
or all naturally occurring uranium on Earth.
It has a half life of 4,510,000,000 years. This happens to be the approximate age of the
Earth.
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- Therefore, in
Earth’s beginning there was twice as much U-238 as there is today. Uranium 235, a different isotope of uranium
containing 3 fewer neutrons, makes up 0.7% of all naturally occurring
uranium. It has a half life of
713,000,000 years.
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- How old is the
ground you are standing on? By measuring the relative abundance of
different radioactive isotopes scientists can date the origin of a sample. Using this technique scientists have
estimated the oldest natural rocks found on Earth to by 3,800,000,000 years
old. We said natural rocks because we
meant not to include meteorites that have come to us from outer space. These rocks have been dated at 4,500,000,000
years. And, we think there are the same
age as the Earth.
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- The energy of
uranium was put there by an exploding supernova that produced such an enormous
shockwave as to compress the outer layers of the star into higher lever, or
heavier, elements. The star itself uses
fusion and can only produce elements up to iron in atomic weight. All elements lighter than iron release energy
when fusion occurs.
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- Iron is the first element to absorb energy
when fusion occurs. When a star starts
the fusion of iron its whole process of existence is reversed. Instead of releasing energy to counteract the
pressure of gravity it absorbs energy and for the conservation of energy to be
maintained this loss of energy must be made up by the collapse of gravitational
energy.
-
- This whole
process of collapse takes less than one second.
The bounce of the collapsing star creates a great shockwave that expands
into interstellar space at velocities approaching the speed of light. The gas and particle compression that occurs
as this shock wave smashes into the elements is what creates the higher
isotopes of uranium (as well as all the other heavier than iron elements).
-
- Radioactive decay is the timed release of this
shockwave energy. Although the decay
process for an individual particle, a neutron, is random the statistical
average of the decay in a sample of uranium follows this statistical average,
known as the “half-life“.
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- If we make
this same radioactive material ratio measurements on the stars of our Milky Way
galaxy, using spectroscopy, we can calculate a lower limit for the age of the
Milky Way. It must be older than
8,000,000,000 years, twice as old as Earth and our Solar System. If we assume that supernovae have been
exploding at the same rate as we see today we can calculate the upper limit of
13,000,000,000 years.
-
- When
scientists make calculations for the birth of globular clusters of galaxies
they get 15,000,000,000 years ( + or - 3 billion years).
-
- The birth of
the Universe, the Big Bang, has been interpreted as a super radioactive
process. The Universe starting as a
single atom with an atomic weight equal to the total mass of the Universe. The Universe we see is the result of repeated
fission of this super atom.
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- The diameter
of the nucleus of this super atom would have been 30 times the diameter of our
Sun. This dimension illustrates how much
empty space exists inside every atom if we can condense the whole universe into
this size. (This is a 1920 theory by
Lemaitre, published in 1946.)
-
- Unfortunately
this concept became interpreted too literally.
It was seen as an explosion of mass and energy rather than the birth of
space and time. All the scientists at
that time were trying to use Einstein’s equations for relativity to calculate
the Big Bang process and the true age of the Universe. Including Einstein himself.
-
- Einstein's equations included the "cosmological
constant" that he added to keep the Universe flat and static with the
equation results. He later called it his
greatest blunder when he learned from Edwin Hubble’s work that the universe was
not static but expanding.
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- It was not
until the 1960’s that new knowledge was added to our understanding of the Age
of the Universe. This was the discovery
of the cosmic microwave background radiation.
This radiation is the leftover heat that occurred when the Big Bang
first released its radiation. The
radiation has cooled to the point that instead of gamma ray radiation at
millions of degrees temperature it is microwave radiation at 2.7 degrees
Kelvin, -270.3 C.
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- The cosmic
radiation may have started out uniform in temperature however as it spread out
and interacted with galaxy clusters which contain interstellar gas at
100,000,000 degrees. This interaction
boosts the energy of those photons to shorter wavelengths. That is, the radiation passing through a
galaxy cluster get a bit hotter. Counter
intuitive to what we see the radiation gets boosted outside the range of our
microwave receiver and it is effectively gone.
It appears cooler rather than hotter in our microwave background
picture. But, this apparent change of
temperature in our picture is only 0.01%.
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- The math of
how these temperature variations are interpreted is beyond me. It involves computer modeling and much error
analysis and many assumptions (inspired guesswork) that is over my head. This interpretation is also compared with
several other methods used to date the Universe. As of the year 2000 the age was
13,400,000,000 years (+ or - 1.6 billion years).
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- As of 2005 it
is 13,700,000,000 years and waiting for the next new discovery. Today's calculations put the age at 13,850,000,000
years The time is incomprehensible to
our lives. And, the fact that we can
comprehend the age of the Universe is truly amazing. Even more amazing is that you
and I are here thinking about it.
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------------------------- Friday, April 20, 2018
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