“C-God” 13.8 Billion Years Old

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Yes, it has been confirmed:  13.8 billion years old.

That is the age of our entire known Cosmos (C) or Universe from the very first millisecond it exploded into existence until today. Or for the hard-line Faithers out there, “Yahweh” or “God” or “Allah” or whatever your personal supreme being is named, it is without question 13.8 billion years old.

There have been several techniques to calculate and estimate the age of the Universe. Over the last century four methods of approximation have been used:

  1. The Hubble Constant
  2. Decay of radioactive elements/objects – can also be applied to gases, but with less accuracy
  3. Age of White Dwarf stars, locating the faintest/oldest
  4. Age of ancient star clusters/globulars

Fortunately, and for all prosperity and posterity, science has a fifth and final method ending any debate about the Universe’s age. It is remarkably accurate to within less than 1-percent.

Incorporating method #4 above with the compiled data of NASA’s Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (WMAP) launched in 2001, and the European Space Agency’s Planck-satellite launched in 2009, we can determine exactly how long our known, visible Cosmos has been around. Watch NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) two-minute video here explaining in layman terms just how this measuring and time-dating works.

NGC 3603 star-cluster

NGC 3603, an open star cluster and starburst region in the Carina spiral arm of the Milky Way around 20,000 light-years away from the Solar System

∼ ∼ ∼ § ∼ ∼ ∼

If those four common measurements are not enough to convince you or other doubters, then perhaps Cosmologist and graduate of Yale and Rutgers Universities in Physics, Mathematics, Astronomy, and Astrophysics, Dr. Neelima Sehgal, currently Associate Professor in Physics & Astronomy at Stony Brook University, NY, can assist your unlearned hesitation. From Stony Brook University’s research journal:

The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) team in Chile confirmed previous measurements of ancient light-clusters extracted from the Planck satellite data.

[…]

Neelima Sehgal - ACT

Dr. Neelima Sehgal, ACT and Stony Brook University

Obtaining the best image of the infant universe, explains Professor Sehgal, helps scientists better understand the origins of the universe, how we got to where we are on Earth, the galaxies, where we are going, how the universe may end, and when that ending may occur.

[…]

The new ACT estimate on the age of the universe matches the one provided by the standard model of the universe and measurements of the same light made by the Planck satellite. This adds a fresh twist to an ongoing debate in the astrophysics community, says Simone Aiola, first author of one of the new papers on the findings posted to arXiv.org.

“Now we’ve come up with an answer where Planck and ACT agree,” says Aiola, a researcher at the Flatiron Institute’s Center for Computational Astrophysics in New York City. “It speaks to the fact that these difficult measurements are reliable.”

Eternal is Not So Eternal

Oddly enough, it seems now there is actually a beginning and an end to eternal. The Greek words and concept the Alpha and Omega (Rev 21:6; 22:13) are in purely astrophysical terms seemingly truer than ever. Maybe. So it follows then that there is no such thing as forever, timeless, or Eternal. From the above five methods of dating the age of the Cosmos, we now have other fascinating inferences and deductions by astrophysicists, cosmologists, astronomers, and advanced mathematicians about the end or death of our Universe or Creator-God. There are three or four probabilities.

The Big Freeze
This is the death of all differences in heat, or thermodynamics. As the Universe/Cosmos continues expanding at an increasing rate, eventually all forms of energy (heat) will dissipate over time until everything—all celestial bodies, i.e. stars/suns, galaxies, planets, etc.—are just a fraction above absolute zero degrees. The universe will be so spread out over millions, billions, then trillions of light-years, and continuing, that it will become deader and emptier with every millenia.

The Big Crunch
If there is enough or too much stuff in the Universe, i.e. celestial bodies with mass, the expansion of the Cosmos will slow then stop. More stuff means more gravity. The more mass all the bodies gain means more stronger gravity, which means everything gets pulled back in, contracting inward until the Universe becomes so compact, so dense with mass that an astounding inferno occurs, the Big Crunch.

The Big Change
If our Universe is expanding and its expansion is accelerating as most scientists today agree, then matter and energy as we normally understand them could not allow the Universe to continue behaving in this basic manner. In 1998 teams of astrophysicists examining Type 1A supernovae for the Hubble Constant discovered that expansion wasn’t slowing down, but actually accelerating.

Even more bizarre was the expansion had been decelerating, as once thought, until 7-8 billion years after the Big Bang. At that point, for reasons yet to be learned, a puzzling “anti-gravity force” began to dominate, taking over the gravity-induced contracting placed on expansion and then reversed the slowdown and began accelerating. This was dubbed Dark Energy. This energy pulls everything in the Universe apart,  and turns it upside down. The basic building blocks of fundamental particles like electrons and Quarks could be entirely different, radically overhauling our rules of chemistry and maybe impeding the formation of atoms and molecules. It would be quite an inhospitable Big Change. If that were to happen, then plants, animals, humans, even planet and stars would be destroyed. Dark Energy currently makes up about 68% of all energy in the Universe and that percentage is growing each day.

Accelerating Universe - Big Change & Rip

Different possible fates of the Universe, with our actual, accelerating fate shown at the far right. After enough time goes by, the acceleration will leave every bound galactic or supergalactic structure completely isolated in the Universe, as all the other structures accelerate irrevocably away. (NASA & ESA)

The Big Rip
The Big Rip is a more remote, unlikely ending, but nonetheless cannot yet be ruled out. Dark Energy could be more destructive, more powerful than scientists know right now. Here’s the very weird part.

While the Cosmos is expanding, Dark Energy’s (DE) density remains fixed. What this also means is that with increasing volume, more DE pops into existence over time in order to maintain the constant density. What’s even more extraordinarily freaky is that if the density of DE increases as the Universe keeps expanding, then what would happen if DE enlarges faster than the Universe is expanding? In other words, DE’s speed of growth surpasses the speed of light! 😲 This theoretical model is called phantom dark energy and its mechanism is called the Big Rip. Fortunately for our super distant descendants, if this rip were to happen, it would be a horrifically instant death occurring so fast our brains could not process anything that was happening. Woosh! Gone.

And So the Purpose of Consciousness and Life

Everything we mortal humans eventually learn is that all things in life have a beginning, a middle, and an end. All experience, all evidence we have and understand of life indicates a start and a finish. Nothing, not even an original cause or imagined “Creator” is timeless or eternal. It too was born 13.8 billion years ago. He/She/It is growing obese, quicker than before, and will die a final death. Not only is the word eternal fictitious and conceived from ancient, mortal Earthlings’ crude ineptitude passed on transgenerationally, but it is also fruitless, unrewarding for the present. Therefore, I think James Oppenheim had much to say about our life, existence, and the human condition: “The foolish man seeks happiness in the distance, the wise grows it under his feet.”

There are countless forces that we know dictate our individual lives, significant portions of our lives at the start, most of all with our biological parents. Theirs was also significantly dictated by their biological parents or guardians, and family members. No one has any control whatsoever about who and what their ancestors would be. Earth too is fated to follow external forces. She is just one planet of nine gravitational bodies within our one tiny solar system among billions and trillions of galaxies with millions of other star systems. Our Sun and Jupiter are heavy, major influencers upon Earth’s condition! At the risk of sounding silly and stating the obvious, no one, let alone the entire human species, has the ability (yet?) to make our Sun or Jupiter do anything we wish. And as we’ve now learned from interdisciplinary science, particularly cosmology and astrophysics, the clock is ticking. There will indeed be a final, universal end that not even our man-made God(s) can escape. Is that the Coup d’état of ultimate nihilism? Or is it, as I believe, the epitome of liberation and empowerment, here and now? A tranquility from accepting our place and definitive demise of us, of all things then, now, and that will ever be?

I exist as I am, that is enough. If no other in the world be aware I sit content. And if each and all be aware I sit content. One world is aware, and by the far the largest to me, and that is myself. And whether I come to my own today or in ten thousand or ten million years, I can cheerfully take it now, or with equal cheerfulness, I can wait. — Walt Whitman

————

Live Well — Love Much — Laugh Often — Learn Always

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38 thoughts on ““C-God” 13.8 Billion Years Old”

  1. I’ve been an amateur astronomer since I was a kid and as such developed a great deal of curiosity about cosmology. It’s been interesting to watch the development of various theories about the ultimate fate of the universe. When I was a kid, before we knew about dark energy and dark matter, and could really only rely on observations from ordinary light and some primitive radio telescopes, the two most popular theories seemed to be a steady state, and a cyclical universe. In the first, the universe was static, not changing in size, and eventually the universe would turn into a cold, dark, lifeless place as all energy eventually faded away. The cyclical, the universe would reach a point where gravity would take over, pull everything back into the origin point, and it would blow up again and the whole thing would start all over again. Now it looks like the universe will keep accelerating, things will move farther apart, and eventually the only thing our observable universe will consist of in the distant future is our own galaxy (or, rather, the mega galaxy that will remain after the MIlky Way and Andromeda merge). Everything else will be beyond our, oh, event horizon, so to speak. And eventually that will fade, stars dying, and leaving what little remains a cold, dead thing. A rather depressing ending, of course, but to be realistic the human race will be long gone because billions of years before that the sun will have turned into a red giant, frying all of the inner planets.

    The purpose or meaning of life? Well, it doesn’t have one, really. Life just is. It is the result of certain chemical and molecular interactions over the course of billions of years. There is no reason for it, no purpose, no meaning, except what we ourselves apply to it as Whitman said so eloquently. Nor is there any real need for such a thing. Trying to assign a purpose or meaning to our existence is a purely human thing. To paraphrase Mark Twain, man is the only animal that thinks the deity sits up nights admiring him.

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    • Thank you Grouchy for your comment and thoughts. 🙂

      Yes, your description of Einstein’s Static Universe was the prevailing theory in the 20th century along with accompanying sub-theories to it like The Big Freeze and a cyclical Universe expanding and contracting due to gravity.

      However, it seems today that the general prevailing consensus—after various different testing methods of the Universe’s size and age—of the collected data shows that it is indeed expanding AND the expansion is accelerating, not slowing due to gravitational forces and bodies/masses in space, the “stuff” with density, if you will. 🤔 :/

      Cosmologists, astrophysicists and physicists, mathematicians, astronomers, chemists, etc, around the world have checked and re-checked the numbers/data and it appears a version of The Big Freeze and perhaps The Big Change are most probable. But alas, as you correctly mentioned, it may not matter to the human species because our own Sun will indeed burnout and then become a Red Giant consuming Earth and anything still on it. 🔥💥 Hopefully before that time we will have found another Goldilocks planet somewhere safe from our dying Sun, huh?

      Your Mark Twain quote/paraphrase is poignant as to the sheer arrogance man/men can possess and just how imaginative their little brains can get. 😄 Excellent thought and point Grouchy! 👍🏼

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        • Ugh, you’re going to make me blush John. 😊 Nevertheless, thank you.

          I am used to doing MORE research/bibliographies for articles, essays, group oratories, articles, thesis-papers, etc. However, for social-media—despite the fact that I don’t think WordPress is a true social-media site compared to FB, Twitter, IG, YouTube, SnapChat, TikTok, et al—doing so much work for required or appropriate support to one’s blog-post subjects and POV is it seems (for social-media readers) a waste of MY time. Hence, WP’s recommendation of keeping all posts to 1,000 words or less. HAH!

          And if that isn’t sadly shallow for my tastes, many internet analysis groups/teams consider even 1k words to be too much! 😲 Geezzz! I mean does EVERYONE on the internet have the attention-span of our 6th-grade POTUS… who often cannot type intelligible 40-word sentences/thoughts on Twitter!!!? 😄

          So, against my personal wishes and preferences I keep my WP work to a skeletal minimum/maximum. Lol 😉

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          • I take offense. I do not consider my attention span to be the same as 6th grade POTUS!

            HOWEVER, having said that, I do not like lengthy WP posts and agree with the “internet analysis groups/teams. This is not directed to you or anyone else who tends to write and write and write … (And there ARE others.)

            For me personally, very seldom do the vast accumulation of words add to the core of the post’s message. Generally speaking, the writer’s viewpoint can be detected within the first 2-3 paragraphs.

            Again … I mean no offense. Just offering my thoughts (which are actually a bit lengthy if push comes to shove).

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            • 🤭🥰 I was wondering if you’d catch this Nan, thinking if you did whether you’d speak up. You are true to form Ma’am and I appreciate that. Lol 😉

              Your point is well taken and I cannot argue against it too much. I am sometimes/often pedantic with my blog-posts and comments. Repeated apologies Nan. ❤️ And of course (as I know you know) I was not singling you out as one of those 6th-grader POTUS-wannabees with 20-second attention spans and comprehension on the internet. 😉 😛

              Perhaps I should’ve clarified more when I overstated “EVERYONE” on the internet, huh? 🤭

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            • You do not need to make apologies to me, PT. I was just expressing my personal perspective on lengthy posts. AND … in case you missed it … it isn’t just you.

              It’s actually rather poetic since MANY years ago, I was told by my English teacher that my writings were too long and drawn out. Since she was one of my favorite teachers, I took her advice. 😛

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  5. 🤣🤣🤣 Fantastic question and later deduction Robert!!! Oh my that is so perfect an assessment and yet so VERY true about their “private lives” behind closed doors!!! 🤣 Hilarious!

    Apparently that “God” you speak of has a plethora of nasty faults and ineptitudes. Not only does He/She/It suffer from chronic narcolepsy, but also doesn’t know how to “create” proper human beings in the embryonic sack/womb! I mean, have you seen all the stats/percentages of inter-sexed births not only on THIS continent, but around the world!!!? 😲

    Here, take a looksy at just how common “God” apparently messes up in North America big time, and repeatedly too:

    https://isna.org/faq/frequency/

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    • Lol 😄 Not anymore. You’ve awakened me Jo! You’ve resurrected the Professor!!! 😉

      No, seriously. As you may or may not know, the U.S. is the worst, most affected and infected nation with COVID-19 on the entire planet. Why is a tiny bit complicated, BUT… it is ultimately undeniably simple:

      Since January to mid-February 2020 we have had utterly incompetent federal leadership to intelligently and in unison (as a nation; “E pluribus unum” as we stamp on all of coinage) to deal with this pandemic. Period!

      As a result of incompetent leadership, especially in the White House, this pandemic has invaded every possible aspect of not only our crippled failing economy, but socially, medically, and ecologically too. Therefore, these last few weeks I have been dealing with some of the most BIZARRE events and behaviors I have ever seen in my entire life! I shit you not Jo. 🥺

      And following THAT domino-effect, I have less time unfortunately for simple pleasures and time-intensive online hobbies such as WordPress blogging… which I do miss. 😒

      But for now, I am still alive Jo. Thank you Sir for asking and thinking about me! That puts a big Texas grin on my face. 😉 😁

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      • Oh good. I’m glad you’re not dead. I would have been sad.

        I was worried. I mean, you’re quite old now… and old people can kick off (and go towards the light) pretty much any time. Especially nowadays.

        🙂

        Your people are mad though. Madder than usual.

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        • Boy, that is the UNDERSTATEMENT of the year Jo!!! It has really been that way since January of 2017, starting with the empty Presidential Inauguration on the grounds of the National Mall. 🙄

          But it’s been significantly worse since we ignored the pandemic back in Nov – Dec 2019 and again when the first reported case hit our western shore at Everett, WA (Snohomish County) January 19, 2020. Ever since, things have gradually worsened… everywhere! The most hostile places—as news media around the world have accurately reported—are ironically (or not?) where Conservatives CLASH with America’s shrinking middle-class and lower-class workers. And in many places those pockets/regions of hyper-volatility are where Conservative Police Departments reside and enforce “laws(?).” That certainly includes my home/native state of Texas.

          The ripple-effects or domino-effects of that federally exacerbated virus and pandemic truly infects, maligns, and destroys in unimaginable ways Jo that most people, but certainly Conservatives and religious zealots here… could have EVER foreseen. And yet, they STILL deny the science, epidemiology, and virology. 😔

          This is a VERY different country now than it was 4-years ago and definitely 20-30 years ago.

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  10. I enjoyed reading your post and many of the comments that follow. Dang! While I don’t believe in a mythical deity, I like to occasionally indulge in the fantasy that at some point after my death, given infinite time and space, my essence will re-emerge. Guess not.

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    • Thank you Carol! 🙂 And welcome. Hope you can visit more.

      I’m totally open to some type of infinite time, space, coupled with the Law of Conservation of Energy—that it cannot be created or destroyed, but can be altered infinitely—and as I understand Quantum Mechanics/Physics… sure! Our essences can re-emerge according to my above flawless equation that for some bizarre reason 🤔 has never been published in ANY scientific journals! 🤓🤨

      Thanks for your comment Carol! ❤️

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