The age of the Universe and the Milky Way

The age of the universe
A good way of estimating the age of the universe is dating the oldest objects in the Milky Way Galaxy. Being that the age of the universe varies directly with the Hubble constant, the cosmological constant and the average density of the universe, the direct estimate of the age of the universe can be used to define cosmological models. The metal-poor stars found within the spherical halo of the Milky Way are some of the oldest objects in the universe. As we speak, there are three main methods used to date the stars. These are nucleochronology, main sequence turn-off gases and white dwarf cooling curves. This paper seeks to outline the age of the universe, the technologies related to this field, and the astronomical importance.
NASA used their Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy probe in 2012 to estimate the age of the universe as 13.772 billion years. This had a margin error of 59 million years. The following year, Planck measured it at 13.82 billion years. The globular clusters point to an age of 11 billion years, which is close enough to the above-mentioned estimates. The uncertainties have been significantly reduced by NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope. Scientists later used this Hubble constant together with WMAP measurements to make independent calculations of the force of dark energy (Redd para 14).
Importance of the Age of Universe to Astronomy
Andrea Kunder, speaking to Space.com, said globular clusters are important in the reconstruction of the history of the galaxy, just like fossils are important in the reconstruction of the history of the earth. The Milky Way Galaxy comprises about 150 globular clusters which help in tracing the galactic halo (Redd para 10).
Globular clusters are dense collections of stars. The oldest of them has stars as old as 11 to 18 billion years old. The evident gap springs from the inaccurate determination of the distances to the clusters, which subsequently affects the brightness and mass values. If for instance the cluster is at a farther distance than what the scientists measure, the stars in the real sense would be brighter, more massive and younger (Redd para 9).
Humans, through scientific discovery have also discovered that eight other planets do orbit a star only halfway through its lifetime. One of these planets contains methane and water. And thus, scientists were able to shoot a robot to the planet that is 140 million miles away from the earth, and even drill a hole by itself (Kerner para 7).
Astronomers were able to photograph the teeny-tiny silver through space of time, some 13 billion years ago. Humans have also walked on the moon and collected rock samples from it, and tested gravitational forces. They even managed to take a picture of the earth from the moon, which inspired man to conserve the only planet in the universe known to support life (Kerner para 8).
All these discoveries were made possible by inspiration of the humans on what they were studying. It would be very miserable if these people could not put their efforts on what they loved and counted as meaningful to them. Amazing too is the fact that such vast knowledge of the universe can be contained in the tiny thing that the human brain is (Kerner para 9).
New Discoveries
Life in outer space can only be found on a planet similar to the Earth, orbiting a nearby star. Such were discovered some 30 years ago and have since become a focus for many astronomers. Astronomers don’t just take these exoplanets as homes for aliens. They do use them to better understand some undiscovered features of the universe. 3,796 exoplanets have been discovered so far, 80 of them having been added just recently (Furness para 1).
The Astronomical Journal recently posted an online article reporting the dozens of planetary candidates identified by an international group of scientists. This was done by measuring light fluctuations by the help of K2, which was sent after NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope. The K2 identified HD 73344 as the brightest host star. The astronomers claim that the planetary candidate goes around HD 73344 every 15 days. The size of this planetary candidate was estimated at two and a half times that of the earth, and the mass 10 times more (Furness para 2).
On the planet, temperature is estimated to be around 2,000 degrees Fahrenheit which can be compared to lava being emitted from a volcano. The planet is relatively close to us at around 114 light years. Despite the fact that life couldn’t be supported in its boiling surface, it is believed by scientists that the planet could be a potential to survey exoplanet features like the composition of the atmosphere (Furness para 5).
The whole survey is quite remarkable for the rate at which it identified eighty planetary candidates. This was quite a remarkable tow. Raw data was run from the K2 mission using some tools which were already existing and had been developed by MIT researchers. In this process, they managed to filter through “light curves” graphs that show light intensity from 500,000 stars. Normally, a similar research could take months but the recent analysis was accomplished in a period of some weeks (Furness para 6).
Mysteries about the Universe
The Universe is an interesting place full of astronomical objects with a nature and an origin which we are still yet to comprehend. According to our opinions, the Earth and the Sun are more crucial because they support life. However, there are more profound mysteries about the universe which we try to solve. Whether there is life on any of the recently found extra-solar planetary systems is one of the mysteries. To add to that, our Universe seems to be controlled by strange Dark Energy and Dark Matter. We still don’t know what the two are and the reason why they dominate in our universe despite the fact that we know that they exist (International Scientific Group para 1).
If the forces of nature are considered as a single force, merged with various complexities at extreme temperatures which are difficult to comprehend, the prehistoric phases of the universe were the places where contrast between force, particles, gravity and antiparticles totally had no meaning. With a small number of hints left behind, we are aware that the cosmic background radiation is not totally consistent, containing little changes from a region of space to another in random distributions. It is believed by scientists that the pieces of the universe like galaxies as well as galactic clusters in expansive areas of void are large versions of quantum variations from the original universe. It is still a mystery how and why they exist. (International Scientific Group Para 2).


Works Cited
Furness, Dyllan. “Astronomers Make Record Time in Recent Exoplanet Discovery.” Digital Trends, Digital Trends, 22 June 2018, www.digitaltrends.com/cool-tech/exoplanet-discovery-record-time/.
International Scientific Group. “3 Greatest Unanswered Questions About Space.” ISGs Blog, 2 May 2017, www.international-scientific.com/news/3-greatest-unanswered-questions-about-space.
Kerner, Hannah Rae. “What's the Point? The Real Reason Scientists Study Space (Op-Ed).” Space.com, Space.com, 8 Sept. 2015, www.space.com/30492-what-is-the-point-of-studying-space.html.
Redd, Nola Taylor. “How Old Is the Universe?” Space.com, Space.com, 2 Nov. 2017, www.space.com/24054-how-old-is-the-universe.html.