Astrophile
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- Aug 30, 2013
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Thanks for putting all this together. I understand that the age of universe, as we are discussing in this thread, is based on the BB model. So you have done a good job of condensing the material, and at least I for one am able to understand the material presented here.
I do not really have any criticism if you would so want. I am trained in molecular biology, not astronomy or particle physics. It is a model put together based on particle physics and the redshift, and as you now mention, emission spectra.
2 questions, if you would be willing to do a little more work:
1) on what basis did George Gamow predict the background radiation? Where would that radiation supposedly come from?
2) Did you find out about the question of radiometric dating of earth? Was there a special finding to that effect?
Thank-you for your reply. In answer to your two questions:
1) The prediction of the microwave background radiation comes from the fact that according to the Big Bang cosmology the universe has expanded and cooled from a high-density and high-temperature state of an opaque incandescent plasma. When the universe became cool enough (T ~ 3000 K) for ions and electrons to combine to form atoms (abut 380,000 years after the Big Bang), the universe became transparent, and the radiation emitted at this time was able to propagate freely through space. As the universe continued to expand, this radiation was redshifted from the visible region of the spectrum to the microwave region, where Penzias and Wilson discovered it in 1965.
2) Radiometric dating is not really relevant to measurement of the age of the universe. The fact that radiometric dating of terrestrial rocks and meteorites yields an age of 4540 million years for the Earth and an age of 4568 million years for the solar system shows that the universe must be older, but measurements of the age of the universe do not depend on radiometric dating.
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