Question

How old is the universe ?

Answer 1

Hint:In this question, you are expected to tell the age of the universe. In order to answer this question, you need to look for various things such as stars, galaxies, quasars and the universe itself. For the time being, the age of the universe is taken by us as a fact but not by the scientists who keep on researching and studying the universe. The age of the universe can be determined by two ways, one way is to find the age of the oldest object or component of the universe and the other way is to find out how fast the universe is expanding.

Complete answer:
It is obvious that the universe would not be younger than the objects contained in itself and therefore finding the age of the oldest star in the universe would give us an age limit of the universe and that age would never exceed the age of that oldest star. Stars are not the only way to determine the age limit of the universe. Study of globular clusters is also used to determine the age of the universe.

Globular clusters are dense collections of stars. The oldest globular clusters have stars whose upper age limit is 14 billion years. So, finally we conclude that the age limit of the universe is 14 billion years, or precisely speaking, it is 13.8 billion years. It can be older but not younger

So, the universe is probably 13.8 billion years old.

Note:We have discussed in brief about the age of the universe. You should keep in mind that the age of the universe is not exactly known to us but by finding the age of the oldest object in the universe, we put an age limit on it and say that the universe is definitely not younger than that particular value. Also remember that the age of the universe is 13.8 billion years for the time being, it may be older.